Relatives of a Chechen resident complain about his unjustified criminal prosecution

Ramzan Minazaev, a former law enforcer, was sentenced to freedom deprivation for taking part in a gang in Stavropol in 2020-2022, although his defence has proofs and witnesses that he had not left Chechnya during this period.

"For ten years, from 2001 to 2011, he served in the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), fought against illegal armed formations (IAFs), and now they are making a bandit out of him. We have four children who have been without their father for two years now, and I am disabled. On December 6, 2024, the Stavropol Territorial Court sentenced him to 12 years in jail for a crime he never committed. He was accused of taking part in crimes in Stavropol as a gang member in 2020-2022. But in 2020, he didn't visit Stavropol. We had a very strict quarantine then – you couldn't even leave your own yard," Ramzan's wife, Kheda Minazaeva, has stated.

At the same time, according to her story, the judge refused to include the details of telephone conversations for 2020, proving her husband's innocence.

Umar Sulbanov, who was convicted within the same case with Minazaev, and who is called a "thief in law", is Minazaev's distant relative. But they got acquainted in December 2020, despite the fact that the first episode incriminated to Minazaev dates back to June 2020, when they didn't know each other, Denis Kudukov, an advocate, has noted.

He pointed out the oddities in the testimony of one of the victims, who stated during the investigation that Minazaev had threatened him with execution, but said in court that there were no threats.

A source close to the defence of one of the figurants has noted that, in his opinion, the charges against Minazaev arose largely due to the law enforcers' desire to report about the exposure of another gang.