Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January-June 2007 unprecedented third public statement relating to torture and ill-treatment in Chechnya, along with excerpts of its findings of its visits in 2006 to the region. The CPT highlighted gross inadequacies in many of the investigations opened into allegations of torture, and was also critical of the Russian authorities’ response to the allegations the CPT received in 2006 of unlawful detention of individuals in unofficial detention facilities in Chechnya. The fact the CPT again felt obliged to resort to a public statement, additionally releasing with it detailed excerpts of its report and the Russian authorities’ comments, indicated that the CPT considered Russia was failing to effectively tackle torture in Chechnya. This conclusion was supported by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, who visited Chechnya, including detention centres there, at the end of February and beginning of March. He stated that he had “got the impression that torture and ill-treatment are widespread in Chechnya” and added that perpetrators of torture had a feeling of “utter impunity” (see AI Index: EUR 46/009/2007). On 4 April Russian news agency Itar-tass quoted the Russian Federal Human Rights Ombudsperson, Vladimir Lukin, as stating that: “the situation is far from being perfect”. He was reported as stating that people continued to go missing in Chechnya, and that “arbitrary actions” had been registered on the side of federal, regional authorities and the remaining illegal armed groups. Chechen officials, including President Kadyrov, claimed that there had been positive progress in terms of respecting human rights, including those of detainees. Ongoing violations in Chechnya There was a significant decrease in the number of reported enforced disappearances and abductions in Chechnya during the period under review, compared to the same period in 2006. In the months December 2006 - May 2007 30 individuals were reported to have been arbitrarily detained or abducted in the republic. Of Amnesty International 101 these, 16 individuals were released or bought out by their relatives; three were found dead; five were later “discovered” to be in detention undergoing investigation; and six individuals remained missing. It was not clear from the information available to AI whether any of those who went missing were detained by state agents. During the period under review, AI received information about further cases of arbitrary detention and torture in Chechnya. For example, according to the information available to AI, Usman Temirbulatov was detained on 4 December 2006 by police officers from Kurchaloevskii District Police station and was then transferred to the armed base at Tsenteroi, in Gudermes, under the command of President Kadyrov. He was released from Tsenteroi on 11 December and was immediately admitted to hospital where he died on 14 December. He reportedly died as a result of serious injuries sustained from being beaten while in detention. A criminal investigation was opened into his death by the district prosecutor’s office. Further reprisals Reportedly, a mother seeking an investigation into the killing of her son in 2005 was subject to reprisals. The mother, 76-year-old Sumaia Abzueva, was allegedly beaten up on the street in the town of Argun on 9 January as she was walking to the market. Reportedly, a group of young men got out of a car and attacked her. She said she had been threatened more than once by the men who had detained and taken her son away from the family home. Former members of the anti-terrorist centre (an armed group under the control of Ramzan Kadyrov which had unclear legal status at the time and has since been disbanded, with members subsumed into other armed structures) were suspected of involvement in the killing Sumaia Abzueva’s son. During the period under review, AI learnt of another case of apparent reprisal against an applicant to the European Court of Human AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007