Belkiz Mustieva, 21, who testified against her foster parents Khadizhat and Malik Gataev in the court case in Lithuania, has spoken out during her visit to Helsinki, Finland.

Mustieva has told that certain agents of the Lithuanian secret service VSD persuaded the young adults of the Gataev family to give false testimonies against their parents. In return VSD promised to provide the young boys and girls flats, residence permits and even Lithuanian citizenship. The three young men, who refused to testify against their parents, received threats to be deported to Chechnya and to be targets of criminal charges fabricated against them. The latter has come into reality in the case of Denis Volkovsky, who has been accused of forging documents and thus extorting money from the residents of Kaunas area.

Khadizhat and Malik Gataev, who have given shelter for over thirty abandoned children in two home-like houses in Chechnya and Lithuania since 1996, were arrested in Kaunas, Lithuania, on 14 October, 2008. One of their adult foster daughters, Seda Esimbaeva, accused them for physical violence and money extortion. Apparently her boyfriend on that time, a VSD agent Donatas Shumskis, provided her with a high-quality recording device which she used to record a provoked argument with her parents.

The Gataev couple was sentenced to 10 month imprisonment on 4 June 2009 for home despotism, and to 1,5 year imprisonment on 25 September 2009 for money extortion. On 7 October 2009 Khadizhat and Malik Gataev left their asylum applications to the police in Helsinki justifying their applications with the fabricated criminal charges, lawless court procedure and constant persecution by VSD. On 6 January 2010 they were detained in Helsinki by Finnish police on the grounds of European Arrest Warrant issued by Lithuania.

Since the arrest of the Gataev couple in 2008, their friends, relatives and supporters have been a target of continuing harassment and threats by VSD and the Prosecutor in Kaunas, Ms. Nomeda Oskutyte. Some of the friends and relatives have also been arrested and suspected of various crimes. No evindence to prove their quilt has been found.

The municipal court will have a hearing about the deportation of Khadizat and Malik Gataev on 25 January, 2010 in Helsinki.

22.01.2010

Anu Harju

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