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Kidnapping

Kidnapping

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Akhmat special forces unit. Image: nsn.fm
Austria

Chechen native disappears after being deported to Russia

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A Chechen native has disappeared after being detained in Cairo and deported to Moscow. Local media reported on Tuesday that Yusup Musayev had been detained at Cairo International Airport earlier this month at the request of Russian authorities. On 18 September, Musayev was deported to Russia. No one has heard from him since his plane arrived at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow later that same day. According to Chechen opposition movement 1adat, once in Russia, Musayev was kidnapped by Che

Said-Magomed Bashirov.
Chechnya

Chechen Deputy Minister of Information ‘kidnapped’ after intimate video shared online

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Chechnya’s Deputy Minister for National Policy, External Relations, and Press and Information, Said-Magomed Bashirov, has reportedly disappeared following the distribution online of an intimate video.  On 7 September, opposition blogger Khasan Khalitov published a recording of a WhatsApp video call in which Bashirov allegedly showed his genitals to another man. Khalitov wrote on Telegram that he received the recording from an anonymous source, via a Telegram feedback bot.   ‘The most disg

Seda Suleymanova. Image via NC SOS Crisis Group.
Chechnya

Russia investigates disappearance of Chechen woman six months after reported abduction

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Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched an investigation into the disappearance and possible murder of Seda Suleymanova, over six months after her reported abduction to Chechnya from Saint Petersburg. The North Caucasus SOS Crisis Group (NC SOS) reported that the Investigative Committee began its investigation into Suleymanova’s possible murder on Wednesday. The organisation, which legally represents Suleymanova, works with queer people and people fleeing from domestic abuse in the Nor

Seda Suleymanova. Image via NC SOS Crisis Group.
Chechnya

‘Thousands’ demand investigation into possible murder of Seda Suleymanova

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A North Caucasus rights group reports that more than two thousand people have demanded that Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office investigate the possible murder of Seda Suleymanova.  The North Caucasus SOS (NC SOS) Crisis Group, which works with queer people and people fleeing domestic abuse in the North Caucasus, shared a form for submitting requests to Russia’s Prosecutor’s Office, Investigative Committee, and Commissioner for Human Rights on 13 February in its Telegram channel.  They urge

Ramzan Kadyrov and Ayshat Kadyrova. Photo via GroznyTV
Aishat Kadyrova

Kadyrov’s daughter sole woman appointed to Chechen women’s rights council 

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Just one woman has been appointed to a newly established council for women’s rights in Chechnya: Aishat Kadyrova, the daughter of Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov.  Kadyrova, 24, also serves as the republic’s minister of culture. On 2 October, Kadyrov announced that his daughter had been nominated for appointment to the role of deputy prime minister ‘for social issues’. Kadyrova is the Head of Chechnya’s eldest daughter. In 2020, she became Chechnya’s deputy minister of culture, becoming minister

Ibragim Ibalayev. Photo via Instagram.
Daghestan

Arrested Daghestani exorcist claims he was ‘kidnapped and tortured’

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An exorcist facing weapons charges in Daghestan has claimed that he was abducted and tortured into confessing. On Tuesday, Mackhachkala’s Sovietsky District Court remanded Ibragim Ibalayev into two-months pretrial detention, his lawyer says. Ibalayev is a well-known exorcist in Daghestan. His Instagram page, which has almost 32,000 followers, contains photos and videos of Ibalayev reading passages of the Koran to people supposedly ‘possessed by djinns’. Ibalayev’s lawyer, Israfil Gadadov,

ECHR orders Russia to pay €1.9 million over Chechnya and Ingushetia disappearances 
Chechnya

ECHR orders Russia to pay €1.9 million over Chechnya and Ingushetia disappearances 

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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered the Russian government to pay over €1.9 million ($2.1 million) in compensation to the families of people who disappeared in Chechnya and Ingushetia in the early 2000s. The court’s rulings on Tuesday involved 21 complaints split into three cases from the two Russian republics. In each case, the applicants complained to Russian law enforcement agencies about the disappearance of their relatives, but official investigations into these cas

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