Court upholds Musaeva's arrest

The Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya has considered the complaint lodged by the defence against the arrest of Zarema Musaeva and refused to satisfy it, one of the advocates has informed.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 20, Zarema Musaeva, the wife of Saidi Yangulbaev, a retired Russian federal judge, was forcibly taken to Grozny by Chechen law enforcers, after which the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, stated the entire Yangulbaev family should find its place "in jail or under the ground." On January 22, he accused the Yangulbaev family of supporting terrorism.

In December of 2021, Abubakar Yangulbaev announced the kidnapping of his 37 relatives living in Chechnya. Other Kadyrov's critics, namely, the bloggers, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, Minkail Malizaev and Khasan Khalitov, as well as Mansur Sadulaev, the founder of the "Vayfond" Association, and Aslan Artsuev, the director of the "Ichkeria" Human Rights Centre, also reported about kidnapping of their relatives. Based on information from open sources, the "Caucasian Knot" has compiled a list of 60 names of kidnapped relatives of the above persons.

As of January 12, the number of detained relatives of critics of the Chechen authorities had dropped to at least 21 people. As of January 18, there were 11 relatives kept in detention after kidnappings. Given the information about Zarema Musaeva, as of today, at least 11 family members of Kadyrov's critics are still being held in Chechnya. On January 23, Abubakar Yangulbaev also reported that his mother's abduction, about 15 members of the Yangulbaev and Musaev teips (family clans) living in Grozny stopped answering telephone calls.