23:05, 12 March 2019

Akhmat Kadyrov's former bodyguard found dead in prison

High-security prison. Photo: Elena Sineok / Yuga.ru

Ayub Tuntuev, a former security officer of the President of Chechnya, sentenced in cases on a terror act and on an attack on Pskov paratroopers, was found dead. The prisoner complained to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) about torture, rights defenders remind.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 15, 2008, the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya sentenced Ayub Tuntuev to 24 years of imprisonment in the case on a terror act committed in 2005. On August 2, 2017, the North-Caucasian District Military Court recognizing Ayub Tuntuev as a participant in the attack on Pskov paratroopers in 2000 and prolonged the term of his punishment for 11 months.

In May 2016, the "Legal Initiative" filed a complaint to the ECtHR against the verdict to Ayub Tuntuev. According to the complaint, which was communicated on June 1, 2017, a new criminal case against Ayub Tuntuev was instituted after he wrote a confession under torture, in which he confessed to his participation in combat actions against federal troops in Chechnya in 1994-2005 and in an armed clash in the Botlikh District of Dagestan in 1999.

Today, advocate Tagir Shamsudinov, who collaborates with the "Legal Initiative" project, has been informed about the Ayub Tuntuev's death in a penal colony in the Vladimir Region, the press service of the "Legal Initiative" reports.

"The last time I visited Ayub Tuntuev in the penal colony two months ago. Today, they have called me, said that he committed suicide, and hung up. I am leaving today for the penal colony," said Tagir Shamsudinov.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 12, 2019 at 05:04 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.