MOSCOW. Feb 13 (Interfax-AVN) - The media regularly reports on the number of suspects detained in Chechnya, but it is generally shy about mentioning that thousands of rebels are resisting federal units, Sergei Fridinsky, deputy prosecutor general in the Southern Federal District, told Interfax on Wednesday.
Fridinsky confirmed reports of 80 people recently detained in Chechnya on suspicion of involvement in rebel units. All of them may prove to be members of such bands, he said.
Detentions will continue as long as federal units are resisted, Fridinsky said.
Prosecutors involved in the operations keep abreast of the situation even if 80 people are detained, he said.
"It is done not because everyone who gets in the way is arrested, but to differentiate between rebels and non-rebels, between those who can be brought to justice and those who must not be brought to justice," the deputy prosecutor said.
Fridinsky admitted, though, that some people are detained on false grounds. "We cannot deny that sometimes people are detained are later released, they return home and there is nothing criminal in it," he stressed.