May 24, 2001

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In the city of Grozny, employees of the Russian law enforcement agencies detained Dik Mikhailovich Altemirov, born in 1934, a pensioner living at 107 Zavety Ilyich Street. The Interfax agency reported the following about this fact: “In the Chechen capital, federal forces during special operation on Thursday detained D.Altemirov. As Interfax was informed on Friday by law enforcement agencies of the republic, during the presidency of Aslan Maskhadov, the detainee headed the government of Ichkeria. Currently, D. Altemirov is being investigated for his involvement in illegal armed groups and ties with extremist leaders.”

Memorial HRC commentary: “The report of the Interfax agency shows a clearly biased, deliberately accusatory attitude of law enforcement officers of the Chechen Republic towards Dik Mikhailovich Altemirov. The fact is that he was never prime minister, but only for some time headed the Ministry of Tourism and Sports during the presidency of Dzhokhar Dudayev. He left this post even before the outbreak of hostilities in 1994. Then, for a short time, in the fall of 1996, he became Deputy Prime Minister for the social and humanitarian block (science, education, sports, etc.). When Aslan Maskhadov took office as president of the CRI, he was dismissed.

During the first Chechen war, Dik Altemirov was the chairman of the Assembly of socio-political parties and movements of the CRI, which acted only by non-violent peaceful means, organizing demonstrations, rallies, marches. At the same time, he never hid his convictions, since the main goal of the organization he headed was
non-violent struggle for the establishment of peace while maintaining the independent status of Chechnya. In 1997, in connection with the fulfillment of the tasks set, the activities of the Assembly of socio-political parties and movements of the CRI were terminated.

In 1996-1997, Dik Altemirov provided significant assistance to the OSCE Assistance Mission in Grozny under the leadership of Swiss diplomat Tim Guldiman. In 1997-1999, he showed himself as a consistent opponent of "Wahhabism" and armed groups operating under the guise of this ideology. In 2000-2001, he was one of the few who, while in Grozny, dared to engage in human rights activities, maintain business contacts with human rights organizations, including the HRC Memorial.

We know Dik Mikhailovich Altemirov enough to say that he does not accept violence as a way to resolve any issues. Being a supporter of the independence of Chechnya, he considered and considers it acceptable for himself to act only in peaceful non-violent ways, therefore the absurdity of his suspicions of involvement in armed formations is quite obvious.

The fact of detention of a 67-year-old man cannot be regarded otherwise than as persecution for his beliefs and human rights activities.

Regarding the incident, Memorial Human Rights Center sent inquiries to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation V. Ustinov and the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of Man and Citizen in the Chechen Republic V. Kalamanov.

Some time later Dik Altemirov was released.

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