At rally in Strasbourg, emigrants condemn illegal detentions in Chechnya

On January 8, the French city of Strasbourg hosted a rally in front of the Council of Europe building held against mass kidnappings of relatives of the activists and bloggers oppositional to Chechen authorities, as well as against using torture in Russian jails.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 7, Russian and international human rights organizations demanded from the Russian president to do everything possible to stop repressions in Chechnya, ensure an investigation of human rights violations committed by Chechen authorities and bring all those responsible to justice.

On December 22-24, critics of Chechen authorities, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, Minkail Malizaev and Khasan Khalitov, reported about kidnappings of their relatives living in Chechnya; it was also reported about kidnappings of relatives of Mansur Sadulaev, the founder of the "Vayfond" Association, and Aslan Artsuev, the director of the human rights organization "Human Rights Centre Ichkeria". On December 25, it became known about the kidnapping of 37 relatives of Abubakar Yangulbaev, a lawyer of the "Committee against Torture" (CaT); some of them were released later.

One of the organizers of the rally in Strasbourg was the Assembly of Chechens in Europe, which includes public organizations of the natives of Chechnya, who left their homeland, and activists from nine countries of the European Union (EU).

According to organizers' estimates, over 400 people from different EU countries took part in the action. The rally participants were holding flags of the self-proclaimed Ichkeria and posters with the inscriptions: "Where is Salman Tepsurkaev and other missing persons?", "Silence and inaction = complicity", "100 hostages in Chechnya: we call to release them".

The protesters condemned mass kidnappings in Chechnya, torture in Russian prisons, the liquidation of the "Memorial"* and protested against the deportation of Chechens from Europe to Russia.

*The organizations "International Memorial" and the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" have been included by the Russia's Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of non-commercial organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent; and by a court decision they were liquidated.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 8, 2022 at 10:16 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.