Chechen Magomed Abubakarov claims being tortured by law enforcers

Law enforcers tortured British citizen Magomed Abubakarov, a native of Chechnya, in attempts to force him to confess working for foreign intelligence agencies. Magomed Abubakarov is being denied medical care at a SIZO (pre-trial prison).

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that in May 2023, Magomed Abubakarov came to Urus-Martan to visit his relatives, and he was detained by the police. Law enforcers kept him in a basement, tortured him with electric current, and released him on June 28, 2023. In November 2023, Magomed Abubakarov bought tickets and went to the Grozny airport with his sons to fly to the UK, but he was detained at the airport by FSB officers. They took the man’s documents and forbade him from leaving the country. Since then, Magomed Abubakarov had been living at his parents’ house in Urus-Martan. On April 4, the police tried to detain Magomed Abubakarov and opened fire on him when he tried to escape. On April 24, human rights defenders reported that the law enforcers were not allowing relatives to visit Magomed Abubakarov, who was wounded during his detention.

According to the Magomed Abubakarov’s story, he was periodically summoned for questionings until April of this year. In April, armed law enforcers visited him at home, and one of them pointed a submachine gun at him. Magomed Abubakarov said that he got scared and ran, after which the law enforcers opened fire on him and he was wounded in his leg, the “Ostorozhno, Novosti” (Caution, News) Telegram channel reported with reference to the “Committee Against Torture”* human rights project.

Then, according to the Magomed Abubakarov’s story, he was transferred to a hospital in Grozny, where law enforcers arrived and began torturing him, demanding from him to confess working for the British intelligence service. Magomed Abubakarov claims when he was giving them negative answers, the law enforcers were pulling a pin in his leg, thus causing pain. Magomed Abubakarov was screaming, but no one came to his ward.

“A law enforcer punched me on my head and in my groin. He demanded from me to confess that I allegedly was an agent of the British intelligence service. The torture had been continuing for about three hours. The man who was beating me said that he would return,” the human rights defenders quoted Magomed Abubakarov as saying.

Magomed Abubakarov claimed that the law enforcers demanded from him to tell them about a certain Sergey, who allegedly recruited him and stayed in Ukraine. Magomed Abubakarov refused to incriminate himself. The man was accused of attempting to kill policemen and taken to a SIZO, where he is still being kept. The human rights defenders reported that Magomed Abubakarov was not receiving medical care, as after he had got a wound to his thigh, he got intestinal complications.

Earlier, the human rights defenders have warned that a citizen of a “hostile state” who came to Chechnya is taking a great risk, since the law enforcement bodies are interested in finding enemies.

*The “Team against Torture” (TaT, formerly the “Committee against Torture” – CaT) was created by the lawyers who had earlier worked for the CaT, which was included into the register of the NCOs performing the functions of foreign agents.