In Slovakian Prison for Four Years
Ichkeria.info reported that since 2006 two former Chechen freedom fighters are in custody in Slovakia.
In 2006, Slovak police have arrested two Chechen ex-freedom fighters -Anzor Shadidovich Chentiev, born in 1988, and Ali Nuridinovich Ibragimov, born in 1977,- after a demand for extradition from the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office. Ibragimov was arrested in April 2006 and the regional court in Kosice, east Slovakia, ordered that he be taken into custody, and Chentiev originally applied for asylum in Slovakia and was placed in a refugee center, but the court later remanded him in custody as well.
Both of them suspected of an attack in which two Russian occupying soldiers were killed in Grozny. According to Russia’s claims, “In 2001 they and their accomplices killed two members of the Interior Ministry staff in Grozny. They probably operated as part of a criminal gang. They have been prosecuted in Russia for banditry and attack on military officers. ”
Recall that, Anzor Chentiev and Ali Ibragimov didn’t commit any crimes against Slovakia, Russia or their people. They have just defend their homeland and families against brutal Russian invasion in Chechnya. But after a while they have left from their homeland on 28 December 2005. Both of them were searching a refuge in an European country.
The Slovak Constitutional Court in Kosice ruled that Anzor Chentiev was wronged by the Slovak Supreme Court when this institution decided that he be extradited to Russia, where Chentiev’s basic rights aren’t secured. But Anzor and Ali are in custody in Slovakia.
“We have elected Aslan Maskhadov as our last legitimate President. And after the occupying of our homeland, we have fought for Chechnya and our independence. Because we wanted a good future for our children. Who wouldn’t fight for his country?” Anzor Chentiev said.
Chentiev says he isn’t guilty, and he is afraid that in Russia they will torture and beat him because he fought against the Russians in the second Russian-Chechen war. His advocate Martin Skamel said that the Russian diplomatic guarantees may only be covering up torture practices, and he added that he filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. This court has decided in a similar issue in the past saying that extradition to another country for the purpose of prosecution is violating the rights of a suspect in case there is a possibility of torture. Skamel said that there is torture and inhumane treatment happening in Chechnya’s prisons, while Russia does nothing to prevent it. Slovak Constitutional Court refused on December 17, 2008, a similar complaint of Ibragimov, who also filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights.
Anzor Chentiev and Ali Ibragimov are still in the prison of Slovakia. Thus they need help to get their freedom!