Israilov Application
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Appendix 3 I, Shovda Anvorbekovna Viskhanova, born January 5, 1968, am the wife of Sharpudi Israilov. On Saturday, November 27, 2004, around noon, I was returning to our home at Dudaev Boulevard No. 4 apartment 70 from the city, where I was trying to obtain a job as a nurse. When I entered the doorway of the building and walked up to the fifth floor, an armed man followed me in. The man told me that he is looking for my husband and inquired about his whereabouts. I answered him that my husband is at work at a military base and one can only gain access to it with a permit. I inquired as to the reason why he was looking for him. He told me that I have to go with them and show them where my husband works. I insisted that I was not going anywhere, because I was scared. He went to his superior several times to consult and would then try to convince me to accompany them again and again. After a while, the commander, a man named Said-Emin (nickname: Razvedchik or Spy) entered the house. I had encountered him previously, when he visited my son at the hospital after his car accident. I asked him what the problem was, to which he replied that my husband was not guilty of anything, but that Umar (the oldest son, who is also known as Alikhan) was implicated in something and that Ramzan wanted to speak with Ali. I explained to him that Umar did not live with us but with his grandmother. They continued to insist that I go with them and take them to the location where Ali worked. I told them that I could not do so, since I only knew the approximate location. All I knew was that he worked around the military base, next to the Severniy airport, at a firm called Kavkaz. They told me we would be allowed on to the base, that I should not be frightened and that I would be taken home afterwards. I was left with no alternative but to go with them. After that, I was told to go into the kitchen with my terrified children. The armed men searched the apartment for weapons that were supposedly there. The search lasted for about 30 minutes, after which they locked the children in the apartment and drove to my Appendix 3 husband’s workplace. Aside from the car in which I was sitting, there were a number of other cars with armed men. Said-Emin told me that he was aware that Umar did not live with us, that we were innocent, but that he had to comply with the orders he received. When we drove up to my husband’s workplace, the car I was in was permitted to pass. At the company’s office, they asked about my husband’s whereabouts, summoned him and he joined us in the car. The car was turned around and we began driving, with the rest of the cars following us. In the car, my husband’s mobile phone and documents were confiscated. Said-Emin asked my husband about Umar’s whereabouts repeatedly. My husband answered that Umar had traveled to Moscow for medical treatment and that until he would get in touch with us he had no information on him. He then asked about the location of Umar’s work car. Ali replied that it was in Argun and that Umar has asked him to hold it somewhere until his return. We drove into Argun, picked up the car and continued driving, passing Gudermes towards Khasavyurt along the Rostov-Baku highway. Ramzan Kadyrov or one of his officers telephoned multiple times to make sure that we are on our way and to inquire about our location. We turned right off the highway, passed some villages and entered a courtyard in a village that I did not recognize. We all got out of the cars and with us was also another girl, Yakhita, the sister of Umar’s wife. We were separated. I was placed under an awning, while my husband was taken into the yard where he was surrounded by the armed men, who brought us there. Initially, the officers entered a building, and then a few people emerged, approached my husband and showed him a purse. I recognized this purse, as it had come from our apartment and contained our money and documents. Apparently, they had taken it when they were searching the apartment. They questioned Ali about something, I saw this, but could not hear it, as there were about 200 meters between my husband and Appendix 3 me. After that, they again went inside and when they came back a little later they began beating my husband. I began screaming, while one of Kadyrov’s officers threatened me to stop or I would be shot. Later they tried to distract me from the groans of my husband. They handcuffed him and dragged him somewhere across the yard. They screamed at me and pressured me to reveal to them everything I knew. I heard my husband’s screams and groans and was in shock, not comprehending their questions or what I should reply. I insisted that my husband was innocent, that Umar did not live with us, and that we do not know where he is or what wrong deeds he has done. Kadyrov’s officers continued threatening me, saying: “we will take care of your husband and then start with you, so you better tell us everything.” I don’t remember how long this continued but they even said at one point that they had killed him. After a while, they stopped their interrogation and two young men told me to get into the car, as they were taking me home to my children. I insisted that I would not leave without my husband; I wanted to know where he was and what they had done with him. They ordered me to get into the car quickly before somebody changes his mind about allowing me to go home. I agreed to leave. I got into the car and they took me home. All our attempts (mine and that of our relatives’) to discover what happened to my husband were fruitless. Our friends and relatives made inquiries everywhere, but no one could help us obtain information with regard to his whereabouts or physical condition. In the first half of January 2005, I was visited by a man named Nazhmudi. He asked me not to mention that he was sent by Ali. He told me that he was detained in the same cell as Ali and that Ali asked him to stop by and let me know that he was in the basement of SB base in Gudermes and that he was okay. Nazhmudi advised me not to visit the base, as no one would admit that Ali was being detained there. Sometime, another person came to the house on behalf of Ali. He was also held in the same cell as my husband. He was older than Ali, thin, sickly and his name was Mahmud Israilov (not related) from Starye Atagi. Appendix 3 In March 2005, my relative Musa Kagirov informed me that he encountered Ali in a bathhouse in Gudermes and was able to exchange a few words with him. He was taken there by his guards to bathe himself and he was unkempt and bearded. I started going to the bathhouse in the hope that the prisoners would be brought there once a week but that was not the case. At one point, a young man who worked in the barber shop at the bathhouse asked me what I was doing there and whom I was waiting for. I told him the story about my husband’s visit to the bathhouse. He said that he gave my husband a haircut and a shave. He also said that Ali had been unkempt and that it would be a long while until he would be brought there again. The man offered to help me. He had an acquaintance by the name of Adam at the SB base and he asked him to help me. Adam thought that I was the barber’s cousin and told me that my husband is doing well, that he is properly fed and that I should not be concerned. I told him that I would believe this only if I saw my husband. He told me that he can give me a handwritten note but I replied that I wanted to see him. He promised to arrange a meeting with my husband and told me to arrive at the SB base by 9:00 am the next day, where he would meet me. At 9:00 am next day, I arrived in at the SB base in Gudermes with a cousin and waited for Adam. I was told that he was not at the base. After a while, another acquaintance (he works at the base and is from the same village as my husband), Badruddi Tovsultanov, arrived and asked what I was doing there. I told him that Adam had promised to help me see my husband. Badruddi ordered me to wait for his return in his car and went onto the territory of the SB base. After some time, he drove me onto the territory of the base and my husband sat down next to me in the car. In the presence of Badruddi, my husband and I spoke for about five minutes.