Human rights defenders point out violations in Musaeva’s case

Chechen law enforcers ignored demands to let advocates visit Zarema Musaeva, and Nizhny Novgorod investigators have not responded to complaints about violations during her detention for almost two weeks, human rights defenders report.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on January 20, Zarema Musaeva, a spouse of retired federal judge Saidi Yangulbaev, was forcibly taken away by Chechen law enforcers from her apartment in Nizhny Novgorod to Grozny, where the court arrested her for 15 days. On January 28, Chechen law enforcers presented to the lawyers, who were trying to get a permission to visit Zarema Musaeva, her letter about refusing the services of an advocate. Human rights defenders, including lawyer Abubakar Yangulbaev, a son of Zarema Musaeva, said she was subjected to pressure.

Igor Kalyapin, a member of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, believes that Zarema Musaeva was detained in violation of the Law “On the police”. “They forced Zarema Musaeva out, they didn’t let her take vital medicines, outerwear, shoes, and so on ... Everything they did in the city was a violation of the Law ‘On the police’. The law enforcers had no right to act like that,” emphasized the human rights defender.

Igor Kalyapin believes there is also the need to check the circumstances that occurred after Zarema Musaeva had been brought to Chechnya. “The administrative material on hooliganism, for which she was arrested for 15 days ... For some reason, our advocates could not look through the material, because they were constantly refused. It is not clear what kind of hooligan actions took place there and who was a witness to that ... This looks very suspicious. All this is taking place without advocates. During all the time, Zarema Musaeva has never called anyone, as she has not been given such an opportunity, although she had the right to make phone calls both when she was a witness and when she has become administratively detained. And all that causes very serious suspicions, and all that needs to be checked,” Igor Kalyapin said.

The complaints about the abuse of power by the Chechen law enforcers in Nizhny Novgorod were filed to the law enforcement bodies on the same day when Zarema Musaeva was taken away, noted Sergey Babinets, the chair of the “Committee Against Torture”*. However, the human rights defenders have not received a response to their appeal so far.

* The “Committee Against Torture” (CaT) was included by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of Russia in the register of NCOs-foreign agents in 2015. In this regard, leaders liquidated the organization and created a new legal entity: the “Committee for the Prevention of Torture”, which was also included in the list of foreign agents, and the organization was closed. At present, the “Committee Against Torture” operates as an unregistered public association.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 2, 2022 at 04:17 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.