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full version - World Organisation Against Torture

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RussiaFurthermore, when women attempt to file complaints about these crimes,the police reportedly will not investigate the case. 85In one case, reported to OMCT during the seminar and highly covered bythe local and international media, a Russian colonel, Yuri D. Budanov,was charged with murdering a 18 year old Chechen girl, KhedaKungaeva. The evidence of the case showed that Ms. Kungaeva had alsobeen raped before being strangled to death. Budanov was arrested inMarch 2000 (two days after the murder) and he admitted murderingKungaeva but denied having raped her. The trial began in February 2001with Budanov being charged only with murder and not with rape. Thetrial was postponed several times while Budanov underwent psychiatricexaminations, eventually resulting in a psychiatric institution claimingthat he was insane at the time of the murder and thus could not be heldcriminally accountable for his actions. As such, he has been transferred toa psychiatric institution rather than a prison. 86 No one has been chargedfor the rape of Kungaeva.Reports from the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society also show thatmany women, similar to men, have been disappeared, arbitrarily detained,tortured and summarily executed in Chechnya. For example, it is reportedthat on the night of August 1, 2003 in Achkhoy-Martan District, federalforces abducted Luisa Katsaeva. Until now, the whereabouts of Ms.Katsaeva remain unknown. 87 Other women who had disappeared havebeen found among the dead bodies in mass graves. One example is threewomen who were arrested in Grozny on June 3, 2000—Nura LuluevayaSaidalievna, and her two cousins Raisa and Markha Gakaev. Reports indicatethat these three women were detained by men in camouflage uniformsalong with a man, Zavala Tazurkaev, who had tried to help themwhen he heard their screaming. The bodies of all four detainees wereidentified in a mass grave found in February 2001 near Khankala. 88Testimonies collected indicate that it is usually the most beautiful womenand girls who disappear.In another case, the wife of Abubakar Amiroff disappearedand was eventually killed in 2000 by Russian police. OnJanuary 11, 2000, she had gone to Grozny to collect somechildren’s clothes. She was nine months pregnant and shewas detained at a checkpoint on her way to Grozny. Her319

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