The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, commented on his telegram channel on the situation with the forcible removal to Chechnya of Zarema Musaeva, the mother of human rights activist Abubakar Yangulbaev.
"This family is waiting for a place either in prison or underground," Kadyrov said.
Kadyrov claims that Musaeva, who was brought to Grozny, "attacked a police officer and almost took his eye." "Thus, she has already earned herself an article for a real prison term."
At the same time, during the detention, Musaeva was beaten and lost consciousness, and the Chechen security forces who took her away did not allow her to get dressed or take insulin, which she constantly needs, as she suffers from diabetes.
Kadyrov accused one of the Yangulbaev sons of making "direct and open threats" against him. "He says he won't forgive me for this."
According to Kadyrov, the action against the Yangulbaev family was "coordinated with colleagues on the ground," and "law enforcement officers carried out legal and coordinated operational actions." In addition, Kadyrov called on the Russian Supreme Court to deprive Saydi Yangulbaev, Zarema Musaeva's husband, of his judicial status.
On January 20, security forces from Chechnya broke into the Yangulbaevs' apartment in Nizhny Novgorod. They had documents to bring Saydi Yangulbaev and Zarema Musaeva to Chechnya for questioning as witnesses in the fraud case. Since the judicial status of Saydi Yangulbaev ensures his immunity, the security forces took only Zarema Musaeva, while beating everyone who was in the apartment, including members of the Yangulbaev family, a lawyer and employees of the "Committee against Torture." From that moment until Kadyrov's statement, there was no information about the whereabouts and fate of Musaeva.
On December 28, in Pyatigorsk, the eldest son of Saydi Yangulbaev and Zarema Musaeva, lawyer of the Committee against Torture, Abubakar Yangulbaev, was detained. He was interrogated as a witness in a criminal case under an article on public incitement to terrorism, considering his involved with the opposition telegram channel 1ADAT. The Chechen security forces searched him, and confiscated his phone and laptop. He said that in Chechnya, the security forces took his relatives to the police department.
Former judge of the Supreme Court of Chechnya Saidi Yangulbaev and his daughter Aliya Yangulbaeva left Russia. This was announced by the lawyer of the Committee against Torture Sergei Babinets. According to him, Yangulbayev and his daughter said that the departure related to the threat to their lives. Their exact location is unknown.
