Maskhud Abdullaevin liikkeistä Moskovaan saapumiseen jälkeen ei ole tietoa: hän ei koskaan ilmestynyt lentokentällä tuloaulaan, missä häntä odotettiin. Hänen ei nähty poistuvan rajakontrollialueelta eikä nousevan lentokoneeseen. Hän ei myöskään ole ottanut yhteyttä perheeseensä.

Vetoa Maskhud Abdullaevin turvallisuuden puolesta ja vaadi Venäjän viranomaisia selvittämään, onko hän vangittuna.

Tämä on ensimmäinen päivitys toimintapyyntöön UA 170/09
Lisätietoja: www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR46/013/2009/en


Toimintapyyntö vanhenee 19.8. jos ei toisin ilmoiteta.

URGENT ACTION
RUSSIAN NATIONAL'S WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN

Maskhud Abdullaev, a Russian national was forcibly returned from Egypt to Russia on 19 June 2009. In an interview for a Chechen TV programme, broadcast on 30 June, he denied allegations that security forces had detained him in Moscow airport. There are doubts about whether he participated in the programme freely. Maskhud Abdullaev’s current whereabouts are unknown. If he has been detained, he may be at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.

There are no reports of Maskhud Abdullaev being seen, either at Moscow airport or in Grozny. Yet, his interview was recorded in television studios in Grozny and broadcast on Chechen TV. In the interview, Maskhud Abdullaev stated that he spent a night at Moscow airport and flew to Chechnya the next morning "to visit his relatives and to see how life is in Chechnya". He also stated that he is able move around freely in Chechnya and there is no pressure on him. He said that he was going to spend the summer in Chechnya and then return to Egypt to continue his studies at Al-Azhar Islamic University. He appealed to his father, Supyan Abdullaev, the leader of a Chechen armed group, and "to all those who are in the forests", urging them to stop fighting and surrender to the authorities. He also addressed Chechens who have fled abroad, stating that people can live and pray freely in Chechnya, and there are no abductions there.

However, it is not clear whether Maskhud Abdullaev arrived in Chechnya of his free will. He never appeared in the arrivals hall in Moscow airport where people were waiting for him. He was not seen leaving the border control zone or boarding an internal flight or entering the international arrivals hall.
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Human rights organizations have expressed fears that Maskhud Abdullaev is being held by the Chechen security services in order to put pressure on his father, and use him for propaganda purposes. If so, Maskhud Abdullaev may be at risk of torture and other ill-treatment and his life might be at risk. He has not contacted his family and his exact whereabouts remain unknown.

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in Russian, English or your own language:

• expressing concern for the safety of Maskhud Abdullaev;
• urging the Russian authorities to clarify whether Maskhud Abdullaev is detained;
• if Maskhud Abdullaev is free, calling on the Russian authorities to facilitate meetings between him and independent human rights organizations and journalists.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 19 AUGUST 2009 TO:

Director of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation
Alexandr Vasilevich BORTNIKOV
Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation
ul.Bolshaia Lubianka, 1/3
107031 Moscow, Russian Federation
Fax: +7 495 914 26 32
Salutation: Dear Director President of the Chechen Republic

Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadirov
Administration of the President and the Government of the Chechen Republic
Ul. Garazhnaia, 10.
364000 g. Grozny Chechen Republic
Russian Federation
Fax: +7 8712 22 45 53
Salutation: Dear President Kadyrov

And copies to:

Ombudsperson for Human Rights of the Russian Federation
Vladimir Petrovich LUKIN
ul. Miasnitskaia, 47
107084 Moscow, Russian Federation
Fax: +7 495 607 74 70; +7 495 607 39 77
Salutation: Dear Ombudsman

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.

Venäjän Federaation Suurlähetystö
Tehtaankatu 1B, 00140 Helsinki
Puh.:    +358(0)9 661876
Fax:     +358(0)9 661006
E-mail: rusembassy@co.inet.fi




ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

On 27 May 2009, the Egyptian State Security Investigations bureau (SSI) conducted waves of arrests among foreign students at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. Among those arrested were about 35 Russian students, mainly from Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan. The students were arrested and their residences were searched without warrants. A statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Interior claimed the steps were taken as precautionary measures to ensure that the students were legally resident in Egypt. The Ministry conducted the arrests as it suspected that foreign students might have links with a group of seven al-Qaida suspects who are under investigation for the bomb attack at al-Husayn historical district of Cairo, on 22 February 2009. The arrest of the seven suspects was announced by the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior on 23 May 2009. The Ministry of the Interior stated that the seven individuals who had been arrested had been recruiting foreigners, including students.

Most of the arrested students were released within days but some of them were reportedly deported to their home countries. Other students might still be in investigative detention.

Amnesty International regularly receives reports from Chechnya about the targeting by the Chechen authorities of the relatives of those suspected of being members of armed groups. The pressure exerted on relatives has included intimidation, arbitrary detention, forced eviction and destruction of houses. In August 2008, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov announced on television that “those families whose relatives are in the forest are accomplices in crime. They are terrorists, extremists.” Trials of suspected armed opposition members have been marred by violations of international fair trial standards. In particular, some have been charged with and convicted of terrorism-related offences, based on forced confessions and testimony extracted under torture.

Maskhud Abdullaev's family left Chechnya in 1999 and obtained refugee status in Azerbaijan. Maskhud Abdullaev travelled to Egypt in February 2006 to study at Al-Azhar Islamic University. He was arrested for allegedly violating the terms of his visa on 27 May 2009, by Egyptian SSI officers, and was then detained incommunicado in Tora prison near Cairo. He was forcibly returned to Russia on 19 June.