Videos with Tepsurkaev reveal attempts to refuse to investigate his kidnapping

In Chechnya, investigators finally became active and decided to question a wife of Salman Tepsurkaev. Law enforcers forced Salman Tepsurkaev to record a video to make people believe that he was at large, noted Dmitry Piskunov, a member of the "Committee against Torture".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 7, in Chechnya, and then beyond the republic, a wide public outcry was provoked by a video in which a naked man, who introduced himself as Salman Tepsurkaev, was sitting on a bottle with explanations that he was doing that as punishment for his cooperation with the opposition "1ADAT" Telegram channel.

On September 14, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) announced that it had requested the Russian authorities to provide before 5:00 p.m. Moscow time on September 16 the information concerning whether Salman Tepsurkaev had been kidnapped, whether he had been tortured, and whether any official investigation was being carried out into the case.

The Investigating Department for Chechnya of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) has finally begun to react, reports Dmitry Piskunov, the director of the North-Caucasian branch of the "Committee against Torture" (CaT).

"We were contacted by the ICRF's Investigating Department for Chechnya. They expressed their intention to question the wife of Salman Tepsurkaev, who filed a complaint," Dmitry Piskunov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The law enforcers chose an absurd way in an attempt to make people believe that Salman Tepsurkaev was at large, a lawyer said. "This is an awkward and unsuccessful attempt by the law enforcers who kidnapped Salman to make people believe that he is actually at large. I don't think this is an initiative coming from the federal centre for some purpose. I believe this is a spontaneous act of local law enforcers who are trying to avoid punishment," the human rights defender suggested.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 16, 2020 at 05:24 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.