Daghestani resident Magomednur Khizbulaev has appealed to local MPs to ensure an investigation into the circumstances of the serious injuries sustained by his 19-year-old son Magomedbek Khizbulaev, who was serving as a conscript in the Russian army.
The appeal was published by the head of Daghestan’s public monitoring commission, Shamil Khadulaev.
According to Magomednur Khizbulaev’s account, the family had no information about Magomedbek Khizbulaev’s whereabouts for more than three weeks. Only almost a month after the incident were they able to find out that he was in a serious condition at the Burdenko military hospital in Moscow.
Magomednur Khizbulaev said that his son had been serving in military unit No. 32010, also known as the 13th Guards Tank Regiment, stationed in the town of Naro-Fominsk in the Moscow region. His son was later sent on a duty assignment to the Voronezh region, which is where Magomednur Khizbulaev claimed the incident occurred on 6 December.
‘Half of his skull is missing. One side of his body is paralysed, he is still bedridden. We were not given any information about this case — neither from the unit nor from anywhere else’, Khizbulaev said in a video address published by Khadulaev.
According to Magomednur Khizbulaev, the military unit claims that his son received his injuries after falling from a tower. However, after regaining consciousness, Magomedbek Khizbulaev said that he had been beaten.
Photographs from the hospital, published on social media, show severe injuries to Magomedbek Khizbulaev’s head.
Daghestan’s public monitoring commission has demanded that an investigation be carried out into what happened.
‘There are every grounds to believe that the facts of what happened were concealed by his commanders’, Khadulaev wrote on 10 January, calling on the military and law enforcement agencies to establish the real causes of the injuries.
After the incident became public, Daghestan’s Ministry for National Policy became involved. On 11 January, the department stated that it was clarifying the circumstances of what had happened and was in contact with the Khizbulaev family. Since then, however, the department has made no public statements about the results of the inquiry.
Neither the Russian Defence Ministry nor the unit’s command has made any official comments regarding the claims. Law enforcement agencies have also not reported the opening of a criminal case or the launch of a procedural investigation.
