Proceeding on torture of Chechen resident stopped

The Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya has stopped the proceeding of the torture complaint of Abdul-Khalim Abdulmezhidov, convicted for links with militants. His advocate intends to appeal against this decision.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that this March, lawyers of the "Committee against Torture" (CaT) filed a complaint against the judgement that recognized as lawful the investigators' refusal to open a criminal case on torturing Abdulmezhidov, convicted for links with militants. The convict claims that he had confessed under pressure.

Having cancelled the decision of the first-instance court, the SC has at the same time terminated the proceedings on the complaint, said Dmitry Piskunov, the head of the North-Caucasian branch of the CaT. According to his story, such a decision is even worse than the refusal to satisfy the complaint, because of which the filing of a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is delayed.

On February 20, 2020, lawyers of the CaT appealed to the ECtHR with a complaint about a violation of rights of Ibragim Yangulbaev, a native of Chechnya. Human rights defenders pointed to beating up of Yangulbaev by law enforcers and unjustified arrest.