Students request classmate be releasedTimur Aliyev, North Caucasus, March 3 – A demonstration of about 200 students from the Medical Faculty of the Chechen State University continued for the second day in front of the building of the Moscow-backed Chechen government in Grozny insisting that their classmate, Aslambek Khambiyev, be freed.
According to eye witnesses, Khambiyev was taken from the lecture hall by one of the University’s security guards who told him that his relatives were waiting for him outside the building. Once outside, he was approached by some unknown men in military uniforms, pushed into a car and driven away.
His classmates believe that his arrest is in connection with his last name Khambiyev as he is related to Ichkerian Health Minister Umar Khambiyev and Ichkerian Defense Minister Magomed Khambiyev. “His brother was also arrested,” stated one of his classmates.
The students turned to a local police station requesting that Khambiyev be released. “However, they didn’t even allow us into the building, saying that they don’t accept any complaints and if we insist on making one, we’ll end up just like him,” the students asserted.
Representatives of the Moscow-backed Chechen government tried to stop the demonstration but were unsuccessful. Only after briefly talking to one of the colonels from the Interior Ministry who came out to see what was going on, did some of the students go with him to write their complaint. (A,E/T) |
