Help us secure an investigation into the killing of the Gasanguseynov brothers.

On 23 August 2016, 18-year-old Gasangusein and 17-year-old Nabi Gasanguseynov were shot dead near the village of Goor-Khindakh in the Republic of Dagestan. The teenagers, who worked as shepherds, were heading home for dinner but never made it. Their bodies were found on the morning of 24 August by their uncle.

A few hours later, the Interfax news agency reported: Two armed men opened fire on law enforcement officers. Both bandits were neutralized. According to preliminary data, the eliminated militants were members of the so-called Shamil bandit gang.”

It was then claimed that they were allegedly involved in all the high-profile crimes committed in the area over the past few months. But from the very beginning, everything about this case suggested that the brothers were not terrorists.

When their bodies were found, they were wearing someone else’s clothes and combat boots, and assault rifles and duffel bags were lying beside them. They had never owned clothes like that. And before the funeral, when relatives washed the bodies, they saw that Gasan had eight bullet wounds and Nabi had eleven. Yet the clothes they were dressed in had only two bullet holes each.

The police report dated 23 August, signed by the head of the Shamilsky District Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (OMVD), raises further questions. It states that, during a special operation, two people were killed: Nabi Murtazalievich Gasanguseynov and Gasangusein Murtazalievich Gasanguseynov. Why does a report dated 23 August already list the names of the killed teenagers, when their bodies were discovered on 24 August and not by police officers, but by their uncle?

A criminal case into the killing was initiated only in November 2017. It was later transferred to the central office of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (SK RF), where it remains to this day. In 2018, at a major press conference, a journalist from Dagestan asked Vladimir Putin about the tragedy involving the shepherd brothers. The President stated that he would give the case special attention and issue an instruction to the Chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin.

However, nothing has changed. Because the preliminary investigation is constantly being extended, the injured party – the father, Murtazali Gasanguseynov — has no opportunity to review the full case file. To understand what the Investigative Committee has been doing all these years, the father asked to be shown the decision extending the investigation period. The Investigative Committee granted this request, but in reality, Murtazali never saw the documents: the investigator does not answer the phone number that he himself provided in the written reply.

For all these years, Murtazali Gasanguseynov has not given up and continues trying to find out what happened to his sons and who is responsible. He has held solitary pickets, written letters to senior officials and security agencies, and reached out to human rights defenders – but despite the fact that his story has drawn sympathy across Dagestan, no one is willing to tell the father what really happened to his sons or to punish those responsible.

Help this father obtain the truth about his sons’ deaths. Sign a petition to the Investigative Committee — help Murtazali gain access to the case materials and ensure an honest investigation.