Human rights defenders warn society of consequences after displaying body of participant in attack on law enforcers in Chechnya

A rally with a public display of the body of a teenager who killed a law enforcer in Achkhoi-Martan is an act of medieval savagery that has nothing in common with Chechen customs, activists of the “Memorial”* Centre for Human Rights Defence (CHRD) note. The human rights defenders believe that the practice of collective responsibility of relatives of the participant in the attack may result in the mobilization of the armed underground in Chechnya and the spread of lynching in the regions of Russia.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on April 7, a man with a knife attacked a road-and-patrol police service (known as DPS) checkpoint in Achkhoi-Martan. One of the law enforcers was killed in the attack. The teenager who committed the attack was shot dead on the spot. On April 9, his body was brought to be shown to the public in front of the administration building. The motive for the attack was a personal conflict between the young man and one of the law enforcers at the DPS checkpoint, although Ramzan Kadyrov claimed that the attack was organized by “a citizen of Ukraine.” On April 11, it became known that the teenager’s father was taken from Moscow to Chechnya and beaten.

The rally over the body of the killed young man is a continuation of the policy of collective responsibility that the Russian authorities have been pursuing, Alexander Cherkasov, a member of the “Memorial”* Centre for Human Rights Defence’s board.

“The practice of collective responsibility only strengthens the protest potential among those who are ready to commit such attacks out of disagreement with the regime, even at the cost of their own lives. Despite the most severe measures to suppress dissent in Chechnya, despite the fact that the armed underground has seemingly been destroyed in the republic, the repressive policy itself ... creates a mobilization base for such attacks. The brute force tactics are ultimately counterproductive,” noted Alexander Cherkasov as quoted in a press release published by the “Memorial”* Centre for Human Rights Defence (CHRD).

The actions of the Chechen authorities after the attack on the DPS checkpoint in Achkhoi-Martan have been condemned by Nina Ostanina, a Russian State Duma member and the head of the Committee for the Family Protection. The MP has called the mockery of the dead body of the killed teenager and his relatives “unacceptable and immoral.”

A lawyer for the “Memorial”* Centre for Human Rights Defence (CHRD) has called the rally with the demonstration of the killed person’s body a typical act of the medieval practice of intimidating the population.

“This is evidence of the backwardness of the state and the dysfunctional state of the laws formally issued in the state. The article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for criminal liability for desecration of the bodies of the deceased, regardless of whether they were law-abiding or criminals during their lifetime,” the lawyer noted.

Public demonstration of dead bodies and collective punishment are not the most effective methods of combating radical religious fanatics, emphasizes Elena Milashina, a journalist of the “Novaya Gazeta” newspaper.

*As reported on the website of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the reason for including on March 1, 2024, the unregistered “Memorial” Centre for Human Rights Defence (CHRD) into the register of foreign agents was the spread of “inaccurate information aimed at creating a negative image of the Russian Federation, as well as the Russian Armed Forces.”