URGENT ACTION

MASKHUD ABDULLAEV RETURNS HOME

Maskhud Abdullaev was able to leave Chechnya on 22 July and travel to Azerbaijan to meet his family. He has since travelled to a third country.

A Russian human rights activist received a phone call on 20 July from an officer at the Investigative Department at the Prosecutor’s Office in Chechnya. The officer said that he was examining her appeal about the enforced disappearance of Maskhud Abdullaev, and that he had summoned Maskhud to the Prosecutor’s Office. He also told the human rights activist she could call back later and talk to Maskhud Abdullaev himself.

When he spoke to the human rights activist, Maskhud Abdullaev could not explain why he had not contacted his mother earlier and why he had not contacted any of his relatives in Chechnya. He was also reluctant to disclose the address where he was supposedly staying in Grozny, saying this was for reasons of security. When asked about his plans, he said he had been promised that his passport would be returned to him on 23 July, and that he was planning to leave Chechnya for Azerbaijan the day after that. However, in the end he was able to leave the country earlier.

Maskhud Abdullaev is the son Supyan Abdullaev, the leader of a Chechen armed group. Maskhud Abdullaev's family left Chechnya in 1999and obtained refugee status in Azerbaijan. Maskhud Abdullaev travelled to Egypt in February 2006 to study at Al-Azhar Islamic University. He was arrested for allegedly violating the terms of his visaon 27 May 2009, by Egyptian SSI officers, and was then detained incommunicado in Tora prison near Cairo. He was forcibly returned to Russia on 19 June. However, his whereabouts were not clear until 29 June, when heappeared on Chechen TV alleging that he came to Chechnya on his free will “to visit his relatives and to see how life is in Chechnya".

There were doubts, however, whether Maskhud Abdullaev arrived in Chechnya of his own free will. Human rights organizations expressed fearsthat Maskhud Abdullaev wasbeing held by the Chechen security services in order to put pressure on his father, and use him for propaganda purposes.

No further action is requested from the UA network. Many thanks to all who sent appeals.

This is the second update of UA 170/09(EUR 46/013/2009). Further information: www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR46/013/2009/en

URGENT ACTION

MASKHUD ABDULLAEV RETURNS HOME

Further information on UA: 170/09 Index: EUR 46/017/2009 Issue Date: 28 July 2009