Journalist Milashina finds it unsafe to go to the appeal in Musaeva's case

Elena Milashina, a journalist, has refused to attend the session of the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya that will consider the appeal complaint against the verdict passed to Zarema Musaeva. The refusal is caused by the absence of Chechen authorities' reaction to the question about the safety of the trip, Ms Milashina has explained.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in August, at a meeting with the Chechen Ombudsperson Mansur Soltaev, lawyers of the "Team Against Torture" (TaT)* tried to find out how Milashina's safety would be ensured in Chechnya.

"On July 4 (the day of the attack on me and the advocate Alexander Nemov), Soltaev said that nothing would have happened if before the trip we had approached him personally with a request to ensure our safety in the 'most peaceful region' of the Russian Federation," the website of the "Novaya Gazeta" quotes Elena Milashina as saying.

She has suggested that "Soltaev had clearly exaggerated his capabilities" and "got involved in the situation with the attack" on the instructions of Magomed Daudov, the Speaker of the Chechen Parliament.

Let us remind you that Milashina had linked the attack with the case of the missing Chechen policeman Yasin Khalidov. The attackers were interested in the information that Khalidov had managed to convey to human rights defenders before his detention, Elena believes.

*The "Team against Torture" (TaT, formerly the "Committee against Torture" – CaT) was created by the lawyers who had earlier worked for the CaT, which was included into the register of the NCOs performing the functions of foreign agents.