Suspects from Turkey Detained in Stavropolye

Two people suspected of belonging to criminal armed groups operating near Kavkazskie Mineralnye Vody were detained in Russia's Stavropolye Region, NEWSru.com reports.

Spokesperson for the Stavropolye law enforcement authorities requesting anonymity says: "In the framework of the Vikhr-Antiterror (Whirlwind Anti-terror) operation in the city of Novopavlovsk of the Stavropolye Region, Russian citizen Alla Arutyunova, 30, and Turkish citizen Ozdemir Birol were detained on suspicion of committing acts of terrorism in Kavkazskie Mineralnye Vody and of belonging to criminal armed groups in Northern Caucasus."

Ozdemir Birol's visa expires on December 25; the man was not officially registered in the city of Novopavlovsk. Spokesperson for the investigation says that neither the Turkish citizen could explain the purpose of his visit to Russia's Stavropolye Region, nor Alla Arutyunova could explain why she was living with the man.

As it turned out in the framework of the investigation, the Russian woman has been living in Turkey within the past ten years where she came from the Chechen city of Grozny. There are visas granting entry to Pakistan and Iran in her passport for traveling abroad. An expertise of the passport does not rule out that the picture was changed in the document. The Russian passport of the detained woman was issued in 1990 in Grozny; the picture in the document was obviously changed as well. Criminal proceedings were instituted against the Russian citizen on the basis of part one of the RF Criminal Code clause 327, falsification of documents, which may entail imprisonment for up two years.