August 25, 2001

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Employees of the Russian law enforcement agencies blocked the city of Urus-Martan, and then, blocking the movement of vehicles and pedestrians, began to "clean up" the city. This is another operation among those that were carried out in July-August in the Urus-Martan district. It lasted from 25 to 28 August. All these days, the settlement remained cordoned off by troops and equipment along the entire perimeter. No one could leave it, and the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, in turn, could not visit it to purchase food, medicine, etc. Only in the district center you can buy goods at lower prices, and the district hospital is also located here.

The “mopping-up” was carried out by the forces of the district commandant's office, the VOVD, and a battalion of internal troops stationed in Urus-Martan. Units of the group of troops "West" deployed on the outskirts of the village of Tangi-Chu were also involved. Employees of the Russian law enforcement agencies blocked city blocks, and then began house-to-house patrols with a passport regime check and wholesale illegal searches. During their conduct, no one introduced himself, did not show the investigator's decision, no witnesses were invited, no protocols were drawn up based on the results. In almost every yard, they collected young men and sent them to the city market, which had a laboratory for the production of fingerprint examinations. In four days, 160 people were detained. Of these, 70 were released after being fingerprinted and interrogated. 54 people were kept in the TDF of the VOVD of the Urus-Martan District from two to three days. All of them were interrogated. They were fingerprinted and then released as well.

On August 25, during an unauthorized search in the attic of an outbuilding that belonged to Shamsuddi Khasanovich Khatuev, born in 1937. (Urus-Martan, Sportivnaya st., 61), an assault rifle and a pistol were allegedly found. A criminal case was opened on this fact, and the owner of the house was detained. He was handcuffed and taken to a car parked in the street.

Shamsuddi Khatuev was a wealthy man. He has held various leadership positions for a long time. His sons also worked, whose property was transferred to him for the period of hostilities. The Russian "siloviki" began to take out the most valuable things from the rooms and load onto their equipment.
At the same time, preparations began to blow up the house. TNT checkers were brought into it. The detainee's brother and his daughter-in-law tried to prevent this, but at gunpoint they were forced back from the house. Shamsuddi Khatuev was sitting in the car when the explosion was heard. After the destruction of all his property, he was taken to the temporary detention facility at the Urus-Martan VOVD and was then kept there for a day.

From the very first minutes of the discovery of the weapon, Shamsuddi Khatuev declared that he had nothing to do with him, that it had been planted on him. During the search, the criminal procedure legislation of the Russian Federation was grossly violated: no resolution was presented, witnesses were not present.

All members of his family were fingerprinted and interrogated. However, the criminal case was soon dropped. This was reported by the head of the MOB of the Urus-Martan VOVD, police major U.Z.Sultanov. In his letter No. 3242/10 dated September 27, 2001, he wrote, in particular: “The Urus-Martan VOVD notifies you that the criminal case initiated on August 25, 2001, on the fact of the discovery of a weapon, has been terminated due to the absence of elements of a crime." Shamsuddi Khatuev appealed to the prosecutor's office of the Urus-Martan district on the fact of blowing up his house. A criminal case was initiated and transferred to the military prosecutor's office.

At about ten o'clock on August 27, on Kalanchakskaya Street, the military stopped a local resident (lived at the address: Chernyakhovsky Street, 16) Khizir Abdulkhamidovich Tepsurkaev, born in 1980. After checking the certificate, which was issued by the ROVD for the period of issuing a passport, they released him. The young man walked down the street. However, the car that was driving towards us suddenly turned around and began to quickly move away. The military opened fire on her and, unable to stop, caught up with Khizir Tepsurkaev and detained him. According to eyewitnesses, the young man refused to get into the APC. But he was hit on the head with the butt of a machine gun and forcibly pushed inside. Ruslan Asukhanov, an employee of the Permanent Department of Internal Affairs of the Urus-Martan District (who lives at 128 Kalanchakskaya St.), who was present, tried to intercede for him, but this did not help: the military did not let the policeman near them. After some time, a UAZ car drove up. The detainee was transplanted into it, and then taken away somewhere.

His relatives learned that he was then taken to the VOVD of the Urus-Martan District. But seconded officers of the Russian police flatly refused to admit that he was with them. Have not brought results and appeals to other authorities.

On January 25, 2002, on the fact of his abduction (Article 126 part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the prosecutor's office of the Urus-Martan District opened criminal case No. 61008. Allegedly, “due to the impossibility of identifying the persons to be prosecuted as accused” (Article 195 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR), it was suspended several times, then resumed due to complaints from relatives. The last time the criminal case was “covered up” was on November 21, 2005.

Trying to force the investigation to work, the relatives also went to court. Thus, on 29 October 2004 they filed a complaint against the inaction of the prosecutor's office in accordance with Article 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. By the decision of the Urus-Martan District Court dated November 22 of the same year, the complaint was satisfied in terms of reopening the criminal case. However, the court did not hold accountable the investigators who did everything possible to ensure that the kidnappers were found and brought to justice. Therefore, at the beginning of December 2004, they filed a cassation appeal against the decision of the district court with the Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic. However, as of the end of November 2007 Khizir Tepsurkaev's whereabouts had still not been established, he was listed as "missing".

In their appeal to human rights organizations, his relatives described his features as follows: “height 185 cm, weight 65 kg, light brown hair and brown eyes…”.
By the morning of August 31, the fate of six people remained unknown. But then it turned out that Apti Elmurzaevich Israpilov, born in 1977, who lived at the address: Urus-Martan, Sportivnaya Street, was killed by law enforcement officers. He was arrested on 28 August. For the next three days, the relatives did not know where he was. Officials denied any involvement in his abduction. The military, who arrived in two armored personnel carriers, threw out the body of Apti Israpilov in front of a mosque not far from the house where he lived. The reason for the murder, according to representatives of law enforcement agencies, was an alleged attack on police officers after his arrest.

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