ToAdyrov said that the wife of the ex-judge of the Chechen Armed Forces was taken to Grozny as a witness, the wife of judge Saidi Yangulbayev was taken out of their apartment in Nizhny Novgorod. Kadyrov confirmed that she was taken to Grozny. One of the judge’s sons is suspected of administering an extremist Telegram channel recognized in Chechnya
Ramzan Kadyrov
Ramzan Kadyrov for the first time commented on the removal of the wife of the ex-judge of the Supreme Court of Chechnya, Saydi Yangulbayev, Zarema Musayeva from Nizhny Novgorod by security forces. In his Telegram channel, he confirmed that the woman was taken to Grozny. Kadyrov added that already in Grozny she “attacked a police officer and almost deprived him of his eye” and “meanwhile, she has already earned herself an article for a real term of imprisonment”.
According to him, “Yangulbayev had been sent a summons three times before yesterday’s incident,”and Musayeva should have come to the investigator, and not “push the situation to the limit.”
The head of Chechnya said that the family of the ex-judge is waiting for a place either in prison or underground.
“It doesn’t depend on me anymore. I know the mood in society. 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. Always remember this, the Yangulbayevs,” he wrote, stating that one of the sons of the family “makes direct and open threats” against him. “The competent authorities will deal with this person,” Kadyrov noted.
In his opinion, the removal of Musayeva to Chechnya cannot be called a kidnapping, “law enforcement officers committed legitimate and coordinated operational actions.”
The head of the republic expressed bewilderment that Saidi Yangulbayev has not yet been deprived of the status of a judge. He called on the Supreme Court of Russia to exclude Yangulbayev from the ranks of judges, “kick him out of the reserve and completely erase his name from the history of the judicial body.”
Saidi Yangulbayev is the father of human rights activist Ibrahim Yangulbayev, whom the Chechen authorities suspect of administering the popular Telegram channel Adat. In December last year, this channel was recognized by the Grozny Factory Court as extremist. Ibrahim Yangulbayev spent about a year and a half in a pre-trial detention center on the case of extremism, complained to the ECHR about beatings and torture in the Grozny police.
The abduction of Zarema Musayeva by Chechen security forces on January 20 was reported by the Committee against Torture (the legal entity of the organization was recognized as foreign agents, now it works without registration): human rights defenders were present during the detention.
This information was later confirmed by Saidi Yangulbayev. His video message was a response to the words of the press secretary of the president Dmitry Peskov, who called the information published in the media about the abduction of Musayeva “a fantastic story” and said that the Kremlin prefers not to believe unconfirmed reports. “As for Peskov, they always answer everything related to Kadyrov like this: we don’t know anything. That’s why I addressed him today [in a video message], let’s see what he will answer. I think if Putin knew, he would have stood up,” Yangulbayev told RBC.
The Committee against Torture, after Kadyrov’s statement, told RBC that they still do not have any information about the condition and whereabouts of Zarema Musayeva, there is no connection with her; the organization does not know anything about her alleged attack on a policeman.
“We take the situation very seriously when at least a hair has fallen from the head of a policeman,” Natalia Kurekina, a spokeswoman for the organization, told RBC. According to her, during the visit of the security officer to Yangulbayev’s home, no one touched the police “even with his little finger”.
The lawyer of the Committee, Sergei Babinets, told RBC that the security forces were wearing masks when Musayeva was detained, spoke with a typical Chechen accent and said they were working on behalf of the investigator of the investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the city of Grozny. They showed a resolution “on bringing witnesses in a certain criminal case of fraud” in 2019. The former judge and his wife called the document “absolutely fake”. Babinets suggested that the actions of the security forces are connected with the “ongoing persecution of relatives of Chechen bloggers who criticize the authorities of the Chechen Republic.”
In accordance with the federal law “On the Status of Judges in the Russian Federation”, a judge, his family members and their property are under special protection of the state.
RBC sent a request to the Supreme Court of Russia.
The couple’s second son, Abubakar Yangulbayev, told RBC that after the arrest he filed an application with the UK, but has not yet received a response. According to him, the family has no connection with the abducted woman, and the security forces involved in the detention refused to even take her medications with them (Musayeva suffers from diabetes).
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