13:59, 9 February 2023

At PO, rights defenders achieve support in Zarema Musaeva's case

Zarema Musaeva. Photo: https://www.kavkazr.com/a/v-chechne-obvinyaemaya-v-napadenii-na-politseyskogo-zarema-musaeva-dala-pokazaniya-v-sude-/32157684.html * included by the Russian Ministry of Justice in the register of NCOs, performing the functions of a foreign agent

The Prosecutor's Office (PO) has treated as unjustified the actions of the investigator, who had sent to Chechnya reports about the violations during the detention of Zarema Musaeva, the "Team Against Torture"* has reported, calling it a rare event in their practice.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 26, 2022, the "Support for Political Prisoners" project declared Zarema Musaeva as a political prisoner. The Chechen PO then found law enforcers' actions as legitimate. However, in September, human rights defenders achieved a check of the circumstances of Musaeva's detention.

Zarema Musaeva, the wife of Saidi Yangulbaev, a former federal judge, was abducted on January 20, 2022, in Nizhny Novgorod. A diabetic woman was taken outside without outerwear and taken to Chechnya, allegedly as a witness in a criminal case of a fraud. As a result, Musaeva was accused of assaulting a policeman and arrested.

The PO of Nizhny Novgorod has found the actions of the head of the Investigating Department for the Nizhny Novgorod Region of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), who had redirected the reports about the crime in Musaeva's case to Chechnya as unjustified, the "Team Against Torture"* has reported.

"Surprisingly, but the help came from where we never expected, namely from the head of the Investigating Department for Chechnya of the ICRF. In fact, doing work for his colleagues from Nizhny Novgorod, in July 2022, he revealed gross violations in receiving reports about the crime in Zarema Musaeva's case and sent the materials back," says the website of the "Team Against Torture"*.

Read the “Caucasian Knot” reference material “How Yangulbaevs became Kadyrov’s enemies” to find how the conflict began, what accusations Ramzan Kadyrov voiced, what the Yangulbaev family answered the leader of Chechnya, and what role in the development of the situation was played by an opposition Telegram channel.

On December 1, 2022, at a session of the Grozny court, Musaeva completely denied the accusations. On January 26, the court granted her petition for a new examination.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 8, 2023 at 08:13 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.