Hunt for sorcerers in Chechnya results in repentances of detainees' children

The apologies of the residents of Chechnya detained for providing occult services were complemented by the "Grozny" TV Channel with repentances of their sons, who confessed to failure to keep track of their parents. The involvement of young people in persecuting their relatives was treated as excessive by residents of Chechnya and Instagram users.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in 2019, Chechen authorities intensified the persecution of the people who provide occult services. Since July 2019, the "Grozny" TV Channel is regularly posting stories in which local residents repent of rendering witchcraft services.

Taus Shapianova, together with her elderly husband Imran Alkhazurov, "made love spells and attracted good luck with the help of amulets, while Zulai Abubakarova found clients for them and received some percentage of the money paid by the customers," said the authors of a TV report.

Sons of Shapianova and Abubakarova were also "invited" to a conversation with theologians and law enforcers. Adam Elzhurkaev, the chief physician of the Centre for Islamic Medicine, urged them to "more closely monitor what is happening in their families."

Movsar Akhmedov, a son of Zulai Abubakarova, said that he did not know about his mother's activities. "Only when I came here, I learned why and how they did it. I treat is as wrong what my mother did. I am disgraced in front of people and the republic," he has stated.

Both detained women have apologized publicly and urged people not to contact them again.

Some Instagram users expressed sympathy for the sons of the detained women and found it improper to publicly humiliate detainees' relatives.