Kavkazcenter reported with referring to sources in France that the Anti-Terrorist branch of French secret services (de la section antiterrorisme de la DCRI) carried out raids against Chechen refugees early Monday morning on July 5 in the town of Le Mans. 5 people were arrested – three men and two women.

The members of the Anti-Terrorist Branch of the French Secret Services mounted an operation early in the morning in four various apartment in downtown, Sablons and Glonnières of Le Mans city, and detained 5 people – three of them Chechen refugee men between 21-36 ages and two of them Chechen refugee women. The operation began in the morning and after long searches it has finished in the afternoon. Secret service members sequestered the paper documents, cell phones and computers. Two Chechen women were released in the evening of same day, but three Chechen men are still in custody in the headquarters of DCRI in Levallois-Perret, a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris.

“Early in the morning, around 5:00, heavily armed masked men knocked out doors of our house, and without saying a word, they immediately pounced on us. My hands were tied behind the back and I was laid face down on the floor, my husband was handcuffed and led away to another room, since then I have not seen him and I do not know what happened to him! The children were very scared, we were not allowed to move. The feeling of fear and despair that I felt at that moment was exactly the same as during the last time in Chechnya, when Russian mercenaries broke into our house. But I did not think that here in France we would again experience the same horror! The search was carried out with dogs, cell phones and computers were taken from us, after long searches, in the afternoon we were taken to an unknown place. Upon arrival, I was led into a building where they interrogated me until the evening. The interrogation took place under the constant shouts of the investigator, who threatened with prison and deportation. That evening, I was taken out of the building and they told me to leave. I replied that I do not know where I am and that I do not have any money. But I was threatened and told to go while releasing. A cell phone of my daughter was given back to me, with it I called friends who helped me to go back. We do not know where my husband and 2 other people are. There is information that they are kept in prison in Paris, and they face deportation. No charges were brought against us. Lawyers are not allowed to meet with the husband and other detainees. We do not know about their physical condition. What is being done to them and what tortures and interrogations they are subjected to,” said a wife of one detainee.

It also reported that one of the refugees was not at home on the day of the raid, relatives were warned to tell him that he should immediately go to the police. The police department of Le Mans told that he would be under detained for three months during the “investigation” that can go on for uncertain time.

Local sources indicate that the detention of Chechen asylum seekers coincided with the recent Putin’s visit to France, during which Putin and Sarkozy signed several agreements, possibly, which dealt with the issue of refugees from the Caucasus!

Nothing was said about the reasons for the detention. All captured refugees are kept in the headquarters of DCRI in Levallois-Perret in Paris, where they reportedly indicted in a secret court, without lawyers. Authorities are not telling what the Chechen refugees are accused of. The news agency Ouest-France reported news about the detention of the Chechens. According to the agency, Chechen refugees are accused of involvement in a “terrorist organization”. What kind of organization they talked about was not specified. After 96 hours of detention, three Chechen refugees were presented before the Paris court. They were accused of involvement in a “criminal association related to a terrorist organization” (association de malfaiteurs en relation avec une entreprise terroriste). The agency also reported at least one man is wanted by the police.