Tepsurkaev's wife wins appeal at Chechen SC for the third time

The Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya has obliged the first-instance court in Grozny to correct the violations committed when considering the complaint of the widow of Salman Tepsurkaev about the refusal to recognize her as a suffered party; however, the latter didn't do it.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Salman Tepsurkaev, a native of Chechnya, was killed in September 2020 and buried in an unmarked grave, but reports of his death appeared only two years later. According to the oppositional "1Adat"* Telegram channel, his relatives were told to "bury him like a dog." On June 22, 2021, Chechen investigators refused to recognize Tepsurkaev's widow, Elizaveta, as a victim. On October 19, 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found Russian authorities responsible for the disappearance and torture of Tepsurkaev and ordered them to pay compensation of 26,000 euros to Elizaveta. The "Team against Torture" (TaT)** reported that on February 2, the SC of Chechnya overturned the decision of the district court, which had refused to recognize Tepsurkaev's widow as a victim.

Chechen investigators refuse to recognize Elizaveta, Salman's common-law wife as a victim, since they were not officially married. However, lawyers have explained that the practice of religious marriages without going to the office of civil registration is common in Northern Caucasus; and there are proofs that the couple was in a religious marriage. The first-instance (district) court has ignored these arguments. Later, the Chechen SC found that the first-instance court had failed to correct the violations; and its conclusions did not correspond to the actual circumstances. As a result, the Visaitovsky District Court will consider the issue of recognizing the Salman's widow as a suffered party for the fourth time, the "Kavkaz.Realii"*** has reported.

*In July 2021, the Zavodskoi District Court of Grozny treated a number of posts placed in the "1Adat" Telegram channel as extremist and also found the "1Adat" Movement's Internet resources as prohibited; and in May 2022, the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya recognized the "1Adat" Movement itself as an extremist organization and banned its activities in the territory of Russia.

**The "Team against Torture" (formerly the "Committee against Torture" – CaT) was created by the lawyers who had earlier worked for the CaT, which was included into the register of the NCOs performing the functions of foreign agents.

***Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.