Drunk murder in Grozny, shelling of Chiri-Yurt, brutal massacre of an elderly resident of Serzhen-Yurt

September 3, 2001

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On the night of September 3, in the Shelkovskiy district, employees of the Russian security forces abducted Lechi Khakimsultanovich Khozhaev, born in 1975, and a local resident named Khamtsuev (the employees of the HRC "Memorial" could not obtain any other information about him). Already on the fifth day after that, the district prosecutor's office opened a criminal case No. 33052 under Article 126 (“Kidnapping”). “Because of the impossibility of finding the persons to be brought as defendants” (Article 195, paragraph 3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR), on December 8, 2001 it was suspended.

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On the night of September 3, in house 70 on Khankalskaya Street in the Oktyabrsky district of Grozny, the Russian military killed 86-year-old Abbas Suleymanovich Suleymanov and seriously wounded his wife, Aishat Suleymanova, born in 1939.

It all started on the second of September after 11 p.m. At that time, in addition to the elderly couple, their daughter-in-law with young children was in the house. Two soldiers rushed in and demanded money, gold and vodka. Then they began to turn over the furniture and scatter things around the rooms. The old man tried to reason with them, explaining that they did not have anything they needed. After much begging and persuasion, the military left. However, about two hours they returned again, but already in a state of intoxication. Declaring that they “came to kill you like dogs,” they separated the tenants into different rooms, after which they killed Abbas Suleymanov with a knife and shot Aishat Suleymanova from a machine gun.

The military also attacked the young woman, but the five-year-old son, screaming and crying, rushed to protect her. Apparently, the act of the child had a sobering effect on the killers, they headed for the exit. But along the way, one of them fell asleep - he was found lying in the yard. The second fled the scene.
Fearing that the awakened person might open fire again, the daughter-in-law of the dead picked up the machine gun and locked herself in the house with it. After some time, a group of masked soldiers arrived there. Without saying anything, they took the machine gun from the woman, took with them their colleague, who was still in a sweet dream, and left.
The next day, with the help of employees of the Oktyabrsky District Department of Internal Affairs, the daughter-in-law of Abbas Suleymanov identified one of his killers. It turned out to be Oleg Sergeevich Kuzmin, a conscript soldier of the Russian Defense Ministry. Based on the facts of the crime committed by him and his partner, the military prosecutor's office of military unit 20102 initiated a criminal case.

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At noon, on the outskirts of the village of Starye Atagi, while crossing the Argun River, a military convoy was ambushed. As a result of the ensuing battle, an armored personnel carrier was hit, two soldiers were killed and four were wounded. Among the local residents there are also victims: Vakha Idigov, born in 1930, whose house is located on Nuradilov street, was wounded by a shrapnel in the head, Umar Pakhaev, born in 1957, living at the address: on Sadovaya street, 84, shrapnel hit his back and neck, and Apti Latipov, born in 1970, from the same street, hit his head. A teenager was also wounded, whose name and surname the employees of the HRC "Memorial" could not establish.

Servicemen of the 48th Regiment of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, stationed in the same settlement, came to the aid of the ambushed military. On the way they seized a minibus "RAF", heading to the city of Gudermes. Among its passengers were local residents, the spouses Said-Ibragim and Roza Saidakhmadov and their children: Salakhi, 15 years old, Selima, 10 years old, Maryam, 9 years old, and Yusup, 5 years old.

Moreover, the military put Ruslan Dzhabrailov, the deputy head of the village administration, and two taxi drivers in an APC. And then they took hostage the workers of an asphalt plant located not far from the unit. Using these people as a "human shield" from a possible attack by members of the CRI Military Fleet, the Russian military advanced to the battlefield. However, their help was no longer needed: having inflicted significant damage to the enemy, the militants had already fled.

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At 10 p.m., heavy fire from automatic weapons was opened on the village of Chiri-Yurt. It was fired from the location of the 205th separate motorized rifle brigade. As a result of the shelling, houses and apartments of local residents were damaged: 1. Abdulla Ayubov, 93, K. Marksa St.; 2. Zary Makaeva, 12 K. Marksa St., apt. 62; 3. Zayndi Elmurzaeva, Lenina st., 135; 4. Khasan Elmurzaeva, Lenina street, 127; 5. Jamalaily Zakrieva, K. Marks St., 106/a; 6. Mizan Israpilova, K. Marksa St., 106/b; 7. Makki Isaeva, Lenin street, 79.

A shrapnel wound to the shoulder was received by a resident of the cement plant village (part of Chiri-Yurt) Khava Musaevna Israpilova, born in 1975. (St. K. Marx, 106/b).

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A resident of the village of Serzhen-Yurt, Makhmud Azdaevich Saadulaev, born in 1936, went to mow grass on a land plot belonging to the family and disappeared without a trace. Relatives started looking for him. Suspecting that what had happened was the military personnel of the federal forces, whose unit is located near the settlement, they turned to them. Negotiations went on all day. As a result, the military admitted that they had detained the old man, as allegedly "there is information about him that needs to be verified." After the "check" he was promised to be released. Later, however, they began to deny that he was in their hands.

The worst was confirmed by people passing that day in a wedding column near Serzhen-Yurt. According to them, at the site of the alleged disappearance of Makhmud Saadulayev, the Russian military tried to force an elderly man into an APC. By evening, his corpse with signs of torture and beatings was found in the vicinity of the village. Apparently, the old man was attached with a cable to the armored personnel carrier and thus dragged along the ground. The money that he kept for his funeral disappeared from the pockets of the murdered man. Fearing to leave houses because of the “cleansing operations” accompanied by robberies, Makhmud Saadulayev always carried them with him. He was buried on September 4th.
Luiza Gadaeva, wife of a murdered resident of the village of Serzhen-Yurt: “Mahmud always carried his money savings with him. On that day, he probably had several thousand rubles. I think when the servicemen asked Mahmud for his documents, they saw his money and because of it they kidnapped and killed him. After this tragedy, after consulting with my relatives, I decided not to file complaints and appeals against the actions of the servicemen who kidnapped and killed my husband. I was afraid of the consequences, because my children are growing up.


From the book "People Live Here", Usam Baisaev, Dmitry Grushkin, 2006