Former judge of the Supreme Court of Chechnya Saidi Yangulbaev left Russia with his daughter Aliya Yangulbaeva. “They told us that their departure is connected with a threat to their lives,” the Committee Against Torture Telegram channel (CPT) reported on Saturday, January 22.
The report also states that human rights activists will continue “a public investigation into the forcible detention of Zarema Musayeva and work with the ECHR on the complaint filed under Rule 39.” Neither human rights activists nor her relatives know about the exact location of Musayeva, her state of health and legal status. Where exactly the Yangulbaevs went was not specified at the checkpoint.
Kadyrov’s threats
Earlier, on January 21, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said that the members of the former judge’s family “wait for a place either in prison or underground,” calling on the Russian Armed Forces to expel Yangulbaev from the ranks of judges and “completely erase his name from the history of the judicial body.”
Persecution of the Yangulbaev family
On January 20, unidentified persons, who introduced themselves as police officers, broke into the ex-judge’s apartment and presented a decision to bring Yangulbaev and Musaeva to Chechnya as witnesses in a fraud case. Yangulbaev showed the judge’s certificate, after which the unknown took away only the woman, beating her together with her husband.
Later, Ramzan Kadyrov said that she was taken to Grozny, where she allegedly attacked a police officer. “That is, they staged a provocation in order to legalize the kidnapping of my mother. Now there will definitely be a trial because of an “attack on a policeman that is dangerous to his life and health,” Abubakar Yangulbaev, a CPT lawyer, commented in an interview with DW.
Abubakar Yangulbaev
At the end of 2021, he spoke about the abduction of his 21 relatives in Chechnya. According to the lawyer, unknown persons took them to police stations, and the detainees were not charged.
Abductions of Chechen oppositionists
The practice of kidnapping Chechen oppositionists or their relatives is not new. According to the Russian edition “Caucasian Knot”, in 2020, the moderator of the Telegram channel “1Adat” Salman Tepsurkaev was kidnapped in the Krasnodar Territory, his whereabouts are unknown. In 2021, brothers Ismail Isaev and Salekh Magamadov were abducted in Nizhny Novgorod. In December 2021, the mother and sister of Chechen blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov were abducted in Astrakhan and taken to Chechnya. On January 17, he announced their release. Other kidnappings have also been reported.
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