The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, commenting on the abduction of Zarema, the wife of the ex-Judge of the Supreme Court of the Republic, Saydi Yangulbaev, Zarema, said that this family “is waiting for a place either in prison or underground.”
“Be that as it may, I declare that this family is waiting for a place either in prison or underground. And it doesn’t depend on me anymore. I know the mood in society. As long as at least one Chechen is alive, the members of this family will no longer be able to freely enjoy life, the honor of each representative of our people is so deeply hurt. Always remember this, Yangulbaevs,” Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel.
He also called on the Supreme Court of Russia to deprive Yangulbaev of the status of a judge and “kick him out of the reserve and completely erase his name from the history of the judicial body so as not to discredit him.”
The son of Saydi and Zarema, lawyer Abubakar Yangulbaev, said that on Thursday evening, unknown persons in two cars with Chechen license plates, who introduced themselves as police officers, broke into his parents’ apartment in Nizhny Novgorod, after which they took Zarema Musaeva in an unknown direction. According to lawyer Natalya Dobronravova, they presented a decision to bring Saydi Yangulbaev and Zarema Musaeva for questioning as witnesses in a fraud case that is being investigated by the Chechen Interior Ministry.
Kadyrov wrote that “today, after the woman was taken to Grozny, she attacked a police officer and almost took his eye.”
“Thus, she has already earned herself an article for a real term of imprisonment. In order not to lead to this, she only had to come on the agenda to the investigator, and not go to extremes and bring the situation to the limit, ”Kadyrov wrote.
Later, local television published a video of the conversation between Yangulbaev’s wife and the Chechen Ombudsman, in which she stated that she had not been subjected to violence and that she had been given medicine for diabetes.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that he had seen reports of the alleged kidnapping in the press and considered it a “fantastic story.” According to him, the Kremlin is not going to believe them without any confirmation. He stressed that it is the prerogative of the police, not the presidential administration, to deal with this situation.
After Peskov’s statements, Saydi Yangulbaev recorded a video message in which he confirmed the kidnapping of Zarema Musayeva ” [Ее] abducted by law enforcement officers, of which only one showed an identity – I barely managed to [этого], and taken away in an unknown direction. Most likely to Chechnya,” he said in a video message.