29 January 2020, 10:54
PACE: residents of Chechnya tell about torture and kidnappings
Three residents of Chechnya have spoken at a sitting of the Legal Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and told their personal stories about human rights violations in the republic. Oleg Orlov, a board member of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", told the PACE that a totalitarian regime has been established in Chechnya.
The hearings on human rights violations in Northern Caucasus were held in Strasbourg on January 28. The focus of the sitting of the PACE Legal Committee was on Chechnya.
In total, three residents of Chechnya told their stories to the PACE Committee. "The mother of one person from the so-called "execution list of 27" told the story of her son, who has been kidnapped and kept in a secret prison in Grozny. She told how she was threatened and could not find out her son's fate. Another Chechen told about how he was kidnapped, tortured, kept in a secret prison, and his family was persecuted. The third speaker told that he was among those gays, who were persecuted in Chechnya," the "Kavkaz.Realii" quoted Oleg Orlov as speaking on January 28.
On July 23, 2019, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", the Committee against Torture (CaT), and the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" made public the testimonies of persons who witnessed the detention of Chechen residents from the "execution list." The human rights defenders noted that the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) refused to institute criminal proceedings on the possible killing of 27 people.
Mr Orlov himself spoke at the hearings on behalf of the human rights organizations, the "Russian LGBT Network", the "Committee against Torture" (CaT), the "Legal Initiative" and the "Humans Rights Watch" (HRW). He said that Chechnya is now ruled by a totalitarian regime. "Not only the social, political and economic aspects of people's life, but also religion, culture and private life are under authorities' full control," Oleg Orlov is quoted by the "Kavkaz.Realii".
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 29, 2020 at 00:25 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
