"Yabloko" urges MIA head to remove Babaev from police registration

Sergey Mitrokhin, the leader of the Russian "Yabloko" Party, said in his appeal to Vladimir Kolokoltsev, the head of the Russian MIA, that there are no grounds for police surveillance of Arthur Babaev, the leader of the Dagestani branch of the "Yabloko" Party, and putting him on the police registry.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 9 Babaev was detained in Makhachkala and taken to the police. On the same day he was released from there.

In Dagestan, Babaev is subjected to systematic police harassment, says the above appeal.

"At the police, they tried to fingerprint Babaev, take his blood assays; they asked questions about his family relationships, travelling abroad, his faith and nationality. Besides, he was told that on January 23, 2015, he was put on the MIA registry with a label of 'a Wahhabi'; and he would be removed from the registry in 45 years, that is, in 2060. Babaev received no explanations on this fact," says the appeal.

This is not the first fact of Babaev's harassment by the police, the "Yabloko" has emphasized. In the period from December 2014 to January 2015, his house was repeatedly visited by policemen in civilian clothes; and he was regularly detained in the street without any reason.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.