Chechen police detained three human rights activists overnight after the activists met with a person who promised to provide information about a local abduction victim, Interfax reported Monday.
The activists were detained Sunday in Chechnya's Shali district and held for 15 hours without explanation, Alexander Cherkasov, a spokesman for rights watchdog Memorial, told Interfax.
The activists, Dmitry Yegoshin, Roman Veretennikov and Vladislav Sadykov, had been investigating disappearances and killings of Chechens. They were released Monday, Cherkasov said.
Several human rights activists were killed in Chechnya last year, including Natalya Estemirova, a member of Memorial’s branch in Chechnya, and Ingush activist Maksharip Aushev.
Estemirova was abducted by unidentified assailants before her corpse was found, while Aushev died behind the wheel of his car after armed assailants sprayed the vehicle with bullets.
Human rights activists have accused Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov of ordering kidnappings and murders in the republic. Kadyrov has dismissed the allegations, calling them slanderous.
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