Chechen Bakaev treats his case as prosecution for his faith

Ali Bakaev, a native of Chechnya, has stated that he was accused of organizing an attack on law enforcers in the village of Naurskaya not on the basis of proofs, but because of his affiliation to the Salafi trend of Islam. Russia is seeking Bakaev's deportation from Ukraine amid the massive inclusion of Caucasian natives there into sanctions lists, Evgeny Zakharov, the director of the Kharkov Human Rights Group, has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Ali Bakaev was accused by Russian law enforcers of organizing an attack on a unit of the "Rosgvardiya" (Russian National Guard) committed in the regional centre of Naurskaya in Chechnya.

Bakaev himself said that he left Russia in March 2017, after learning that he was put on the list of alleged extremists. Bakaev spent his first year abroad in Egypt.

In his video message posted on the YouTube, Bakaev treats himself innocent, but would not return to Russia, because he has no hopes for a fair trial. According to his story, his problems began in 2010, when he, then a tenth grader, far from Islam, was detained and tortured, demanding to confess to being a Salafi. Then, an influential relative who called law enforcers helped him. After beatings, Bakaev spent two months at hospital with his damaged kidneys.

That incident, as he claims now, prompted him to study Islam and turn to Salafism.

Earlier, decisions to deport North-Caucasian natives from Ukraine to Russia were rare, Mr Zakharov has noted.