On the evening of January 20, people in civilian clothes, masks and with weapons broke into the apartment of Saydi Yangulbaev and his wife Zarema Musaeva in Nizhny Novgorod. They introduced themselves as employees of the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs and presented a decision to forcibly bring the spouses in for questioning. After that, they took away Musayeva, who was suffering from type 2 diabetes and coronavirus.
Lawyers of the “Committee against Torture” (the legal entities of the human rights organization were recognized as foreign agents, now it works without registration) filed an urgent complaint against Musayeva’s detention at the ECHR.
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The Committee suggested that the security forces could have detained Musaeva as part of the persecution of opposition bloggers. The sons of the judge, lawyer Abubakar and Ibragim Yangulbaev, were involved in the opposition Telegram channel 1ADAT. Abubakar has already been interrogated in the case of justifying terrorism. Ibragim complained to the European Court of Human Rights about beatings and torture in the Grozny police because of his statements on the Internet. He spent about a year and a half in the Grozny pre-trial detention center on a case of extremism.
The authorities of Chechnya showed a video with the wife of a judge taken by the security forces to Grozny
The press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, called the data on the abduction of Musaeva a “fantastic story”. He stated that the Kremlin prefers not to believe unconfirmed reports.
Later, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, confirmed that the woman had been brought to Grozny. He stated that Musayeva “attacked a police officer and almost deprived him of his eye” and “by doing so, she has already earned herself an article for a real prison term.” Kadyrov said that the summons was sent to the Yangulbaev family three times.
The ex-judge’s family “is waiting for a place either in prison or underground,” Kadyrov said. “As long as at least one Chechen is alive, the members of this family will no longer be able to walk freely, enjoying life, the honor of every representative of our people is so deeply hurt,” he said.
Former judge of the Supreme Court of Chechnya left Russia after the words of Kadyrov
Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova asked the Chechen prosecutor Sharpuddi Abdul-Kadyrov to check the actions of the security forces. She pointed out that it was necessary to find out whether the Chechen policemen had the right to
operate on the territory of Nizhny Novgorod.
Saydi Yangulbaev and his daughter Aliya left Russia, the press secretary of the Committee Against Torture told RBC.