Protesters beaten in Chechnya, human rights defenders report

Policemen forced relatives of the women participating in a protest action in Grozny to beat them, after which men from their families were forcibly mobilized, human rights defender Oleg Orlov and Oyub Titiev confirmed.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on September 1, Ramzan Kadyrov confirmed that an action of opponents of the mobilization took place in Grozny. The leader of Chechnya called the opponents of the mobilization the enemies of the people. Ramzan Kadyrov offered to send to Ukraine the husbands of the protesting women. On October 4, it became known that Adam Muradov, a husband of a woman who took part in a rally in Grozny, died after policemen forced him to beat his wife as punishment for participating in a protest action and their 18-year-old son was sent to Ukraine.

The police brought plastic pipes filled with concrete, said Oyub Titiev, an employee of the Human Rights Protection Centre “Memorial”. Husbands of the detained women were given a choice: either they themselves would beat their wives with those pipes for participating in the protest action, or the police would beat the women. “The men took those pipes and beat their wives. The police are always filming such ‘public whippings’ so that there is evidence that it was not them, but relatives of the detainees themselves, who did use violence,” Oyub Titiev stated as quoted by the “Daptar” publication.

Abubakar Yangulbaev, a lawyer and former employee of the “Committee Against Torture” (CaT)*, added that relatives of the women participating in the protest action in Grozny “were sent to the Special Forces University in Gudermes for training.”

On October 2, Ramzan Kadyrov confirmed sending to Ukraine the relatives of the women participating in the protest action, the “Grozny” ChGTRK (State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company) reported on its YouTube channel.

*Included into the register of the foreign media performing the functions of a foreign agent.