Tepsurkaev's wife sees no investigators' interest in searching for her husband

An investigator has questioned Elizaveta, Salman Tepsurkaev's wife, on her application about his kidnapping, but in the final protocol, he omitted many details from her story, said the woman herself. The most likely result of the check of her application will be a refusal to initiate a case, Dmitry Piskunov, a lawyer from the "Committee against Torture" (CaT), is sure.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 7, in Chechnya, and then beyond the republic, a wide public outcry was provoked by a video in which a naked man, who introduced himself as Salman Tepsurkaev, was sitting on a bottle with explanations that he was doing that as punishment for his cooperation with the opposition "1ADAT" Telegram channel. The channel's authors are sure that the moderator of their chat, Salman Tepsurkaev, was kidnapped and publicly humiliated by the Chechen law enforcers.

The questioning of Elizaveta was held on September 18 and lasted for almost two hours.

"It was clear that the investigator had no interest in the case; in the final protocol, he omitted many details from what I was telling him," Elizaveta told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Despite the questioning of Tepsurkaev's wife, it does not mean that the investigation will be able to move somewhere, says Dmitry Piskunov, the head of the CaT's North-Caucasian branch.

"Yesterday the investigator questioned Elizaveta, Salman's wife, on the application submitted on her behalf by the CaT on September 15. Now we are waiting for the end of the check and the main action to be carried out within its framework – an inspection of the venue of the incident, that is, the territory of the Akhmat Kadyrov Police Patrol-and-Post Regiment," Mr Piskunov has stated.

However, according to his version, the chances that the inspection of the territory of the above regiment will be carried out as part of the check are very small. The most likely result of the check will be a refusal to initiate a criminal case, which human rights defenders will appeal against, Dmitry Piskunov has concluded.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 19, 2020 at 09:30 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.