October 27, 2001

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A resident of the village of Komsomolskoye, Gudermes district, Abzog Akhmadov and his family worked in a turnip field. He received prior permission from local authorities to carry out this work.

At about 3 p.m., they loaded the crop into a VAZ-2121 Niva car to take it to Komsomolskoye. Akhmadov’s grandson Amkhad Vakha-Khadzhievich Gekhaev, born in 1986, was driving, and his daughter-in-law Zalina Amadovna Mezhidova, born in 1978, accompanied him, as she was going to return and take care of her sick grandmother and two young children, who were three years old and three months and four months and twenty days respectively.

At 15.10, when the Niva was already approaching the village, three helicopters appeared in the sky - MI-8 and MI-24. They had no clear hull numbers; on board one of the helicopters there were the letters “Russian Air Force”. The MI-24 helicopters headed towards the field, descended and began firing over the heads of the people. A third fired at a driving car from a low altitude. He stopped. The fact that at that moment the driver was still alive was evidenced by wheel marks on the road left from strong and long braking. The helicopter landed. A dozen soldiers ran out of it. They opened heavy fire on the Niva from automatic weapons. Then the military pulled the teenager and young woman out of the cabin and dragged them to the helicopter. At the same time, they put something under the hood of the car. After the helicopter took off, the Niva exploded but did not catch fire. The car was already fired from the air. It didn't light up again. The village residents watched what was happening, and they were ready to testify about it before any court.

Immediately after this crime, residents of Komsomolskoye made a video recording of the car. The Niva car was blown up, the windows were missing, there were numerous bullet holes in the body, and there was blood on the doors. Zalina Mezhidova’s shoes and Amkhad Gekhaev’s cap were lying nearby.

Relatives of Mezhidova and Gekhaev contacted the prosecutor's office. They promised to organize a search and investigate what happened. On the morning of October 28, Abzot Akhmadov, together with the military commandant of the Gudermes region, went to the village of Khankala. Numerous witnesses to the crime claimed that the helicopters flew there. The deputy chief of staff of the group located at this military base confirmed to those who arrived that the corpses of Amkhad Gekhaev and Zalina Mezhidova were with them. He promised that he would sort everything out, but in the evening of the same day he abandoned his promise. The officer stated that he knew nothing about what happened.

On the morning of October 28, in the center of Gudermes, near the district administration building, residents of Komsomolskoye organized a rally. The gathered people demanded the return of the corpses of their fellow villagers, the initiation of a criminal case into their murder and the punishment of the criminals.

The next morning, the remains of Amkhad Gekhaev and Zalina Mezhidova were found near the building of the district commandant’s office. How they got there is unknown. The corpses were first taken to the VOVD in Gudermes, and then transported to Makhachkala for a forensic medical examination. Before being sent, the body was examined by a doctor at a local hospital.

On October 30, the remains of people killed by the Russian military were buried. Relatives noted that the woman was not wearing the gold rings and earrings that she always wore. Both corpses were missing limbs.

During the investigation, the Russian military prosecutor's office did not identify any suspects in this case. Investigators informed the relatives of the killed that no violations could be found during the operation carried out on October 27. Therefore, in April 2002, with the assistance of the Chechnya Justice Initiative, the relatives filed a preliminary complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. On November 14, 2008, the ECHR made a decision in the case “Akhmadov and others v. Russia”. In particular, the Court unanimously found that “there was a violation of Article 2 of the Convention in terms of the deprivation of life of Amkhad Gekhaev and Zalina Mezhidova... There was a violation of Article 2 of the Convention in terms of the authorities’ failure to conduct an adequate and effective investigation into the circumstances of the death of Amkhad Gekhaev and Zalina Mezhidova.” The court also ordered the payment of 126,650 euros in compensation.

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At 19.15 the Russian military fired at the village of Goyty. The fire was fired for 20 minutes from the location of the 205th motorized rifle brigade north of the village of Novye Varanda. A total of six shells were fired.

As a result of the shelling, residents of the village of Goyty, Malika Akhmetovna Lalaeva, born in 1987, and Lazet Musaevna Taramova, born in 1987, were killed.

Four people were wounded: Akhmet Lalaev, born in 1957. (Nuradilova St., 14), laceration of the lower part of the right leg; Laila Aidamirova, born 1959 (Nuradilova St., 14), shrapnel wound of soft tissue of the left leg; Islam Bikaev, born in 1981 (3rd Vygonnaya St., b/n), blind shrapnel wound of the right thigh; Magomed Chukuev, born in 1984 (3rd Vygonnaya St., 14), multiple blind shrapnel wounds of the face and right forearm.

14 houses were damaged by the shelling. Of these, six were completely destroyed, and the rest were partially destroyed.

List of people whose houses were destroyed during the artillery shelling of the village of Goyty on October 27, 2001: 1. Bizha Beterbieva (Chapaeva St., 3);
2. Magomed Beterbiev (5 Chapaeva St.);
3. Magomed Yushaev (Chapaeva St., 7);
4. Ramzan Usmanov (Chapaeva St., 10a);
5. Magomed Beterbiev (Chapaeva St., 9);
6. Side-Selim Beterbiev (Chapaeva St., 9 a);
7. Shamsudi Saidov (Chapaeva St., 8);
8. Khumid Usmanov (Chapaeva St., 10);
9. Isa Bisaev (Kirova St., 94);
10. Said-Emin Taramov (Nuradilova St., 15);
11. Musa Taramov (Nuradilova St., 15a);
12. Kamil Yushaev (Nuradilova St., 19);
13. Abdul Yushaev (Nuradilova St., b/n);
14. Akhmet Lalaev (Nuradilova St., 14).

From the book “People Live Here”, Usam Baysaev, Dmitry Grushkin, 2006.