Students of Chechen State University request classmate be released

About 200 students from the Department of Medicine of the Chechen State University staged a demonstration in front of the building of the Chechen government in Grozny. Participants demanded that their classmate, Aslambek Khambiyev, be freed.

According to eye witnesses, Khambiyev was taken from a lecture hall by one of the University's security guards who told him 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 his arrest is in connection with his last name Khambiyev as he is related to Ichkerian Health Minister Umran Khambiyev and Ichkerian Defense Minister Magomed Khambiyev. "His brother was also arrested," stated his classmate.

Students turned to a local police station requesting that Khambiyev be released. "However, they didn't even allow us into the building, saying they didn't accept any complaints and if we insisted on making one, we would end up just like him," the students asserted.

Representatives of the 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, some of the students went with him to write their complaint.