Two Missing Chechens Found, Detained in Russia

Two Missing Chechens Found, Detained in Russia

Russia detained two Chechens – Bekkhan Mulkoev and Husein Alkhanov, at the Georgian-Russian border on February 19, Russian media reported on February 25.

The Chechens, Bekkhan Mulkoev and Husein Alkhanov, disappeared in Georgia after being acquitted by a Tbilisi court on February 6 of having violated border regulations and entering Georgia illegally.

Russia claims Mulkoev and Alkhanov are Chechen militants, which fought against the federal troops in Chechnya.

A group of Chechen refugees living in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge staged a demonstration on February 18 to protest the disappearances of the two.

The relatives of the two men feared that they may have been abducted and secretly handed over to Russia by the Georgian authorities. After the report regarding their detention, doubts over the alleged secret extradition increased.  Georgian officials denied the speculations.

Mulkoev and Alkhanov were among a group of 13 Chechens arrested by the Georgian border guards in the late summer of 2002, five of whom were forcibly extradited to Russia.

The delegation of the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) paid a fact-finding visit to Georgia this week to study the cases of the13 Chechens.

After a hearing on 16 September 2003, the ECHR declared admissible the application lodged by all 13 Chechens, which claims that extradition of the five extradited men was illegal. ("Civil Georgia")