Rights defenders treat demand to Tumso to come to Chechnya as invitation for execution

In response to a request to inform him about criminal cases in Chechnya, the blogger, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, received a demand to personally appear before the investigator. Given the declared blood feud and the history of blogger's persecutions, the investigator's demand is an invitation to execution, human rights defenders believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in March 2019, Magomed Daudov, Speaker of the Chechen Parliament, demonstrated on his Instagram a decision to stop the criminal case against Tumso Abdurakhmanov. The blogger himself said that he had not received any notifications from the investigator.

This January, human rights defenders sent appeals to the Chechen Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the Investigating Department for Chechnya of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), in which they asked for information about the criminal cases against Abdurakhmanov, says the press release posted today on the website of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial"*.

A response arrived to the appeals dated February 17, saying that investigators could not verify the authenticity of Abdurakhmanov's statement; therefore, in order to obtain information about the initiated criminal cases, the blogger must personally appear to the investigators in Chechnya.

Human rights defenders have recalled that in March 2019, Magomed Daudov, the Speaker of the Chechen Parliament, announced a blood feud against Abdurakhmanov. Besides, in February 2020, an attempt was made on Abdurakhmanov's life in Sweden, while the court agreed with the conclusion of the state prosecution that Chechen authorities had been directly involved in preparing the attempt, the press release asserts.

Given these circumstances, the investigator's response "cannot be treated otherwise than a cynical 'invitation to execution'," rights defenders have concluded.

* the HRC "Memorial" is recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 29, 2021 at 11:59 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.