Confession of Umarov's relatives is excuse for Chechen authorities

Relatives of the blogger, Mamikhan Umarov, assassinated in Vienna, took his death upon themselves by following the authorities' instructions; therefore, they won't be punished. The Chechen leadership equates criticism addressed thereto with unworthy behaviour, which is treated as an excuse for intra-family repressions, the human rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 22, a video was made public in which the Mamikhan Umarov's relatives, living in Chechnya, apologized for the statement voiced by the blogger during his lifetime. The men declared themselves guilty of the Mamikhan Umarov's murder.

Chechen law enforcers won't check Mamikhan Umarov's relatives for their involvement in his murder, says Svetlana Gannushkina, the chair of the "Civil Assistance" Committee. The absence of any official response to the video confession of the blogger's relatives should be regarded as approval of extrajudicial repressions against critics of the regime, she has stated.

"Relatives are obliged to silence critics in any way, that is, lynching a person is treated as the family's right and is becoming a norm. And the authorities say: 'What can we do if relatives have killed his themselves?' This is allegedly a family affair, where the authorities should not interfere. According to Chechen authorities, murders in such cases are justified," Ms Gannushkina has added.

Ruslan Kutaev, the head of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations, also doesn't believe that Umarov's relatives, who announced the massacre of him, will be persecuted.

"Law enforcers should check the relatives' statement, and punish them if they indeed killed Umarov. But the question is why they have recorded such a video message. Chechen authorities are afraid that Austria will conduct a high-quality inquiry and prove that the Chechen leadership had ordered the murder. These are huge and unpleasant political consequences for them. Therefore, they present everything as if the blogger's relatives had killed him; while the republic's authorities had nothing to do with it. Therefore, Umarov's relatives cannot be punished, because they have followed the authorities' instructions," Mr Kutaev told the "Caucasian Knot".

He is sure that the absence of reaction to the relatives' confession is an approval of extrajudicial killings of critics of the authorities.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 24, 2020 at 02:14 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.