Khamzat Chumakov refused entry to Georgia, his advocate appeals to Vladimir Putin

The advocate of Ingush Imam Khamzat Chumakov has sent the appeals to the President of Russia and the chief of the Russian FSB. In his appeals, the advocate requests to pay attention to the situation with the refusal to let the Imam to enter Georgia. Khamzat Chumakov was refused entry by Georgian border guards; however, they referred to the indication of their Russian colleagues.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 6, Khamzat Chumakov, the Imam of the Nasyr-Kort mosque and the authoritative Islamic preacher, and his family members were refused of crossing the Russian-Georgian border under the pretext of being included in the preventive registration lists.

The information that the advocate of Khamzat Chumakov had sent an appeal to Vladimir Putin and Alexander Bortnikov, the chief of the Russian FSB, was reported by an Imam's brother. The information has also been confirmed by Magomed Mutsolgov, the leader of the human rights organization "Mashr".

Igor Trunov, the chairman of the Presidium of the Moscow Bar Association "Trunov, Aivar, and Partners", has called very strange the circumstances of the refusal of Khamzat Chumakov the entry to Georgia. According to Igor Trunov, the jurisprudence provides no term of "list of persons restricted to travel abroad."

According to the lawyer, the actions of border guards may be qualified as violation of the duties of officials.

In case if Khamzat Chumakov is actually included in the prevention registration list, then it has resulted from his religious views. This opinion was voiced by Akhmet Yarlykapov, Senior Researcher of the Centre for Ethno-Political Studies of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Science (RAS).

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.