A participant in the Russian-Chechen war, Doku Dzhantemirov, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, is seeking to be transferred to a Chechen penal colony, closer to his relatives. He is currently being held in the Polar Owl penal colony in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
After the Federal Penitentiary Service refused to grant his request, Doku Dzhantemirov filed a petition with a Moscow court. He reported that he was "experiencing severe mental anguish, which led to deteriorating health and a peptic ulcer." The court ruled that the claim should be heard at the plaintiff's location.
According to investigators, Dzhantemirov was part of a group that destroyed a helicopter carrying officers of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces in Chechnya in 2001. As a result, 13 people died, including Major General Anatoly Pozdnyakov and Major General Pavel Varfolomeyev. Dzhantemirov also, according to the investigation, participated in the shooting down of the Mi-26 helicopter over Khankala. When it crashed in 2002, 127 people died. All participants in the shooting were sentenced to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court of Chechnya.
