Chechen resident urges not to believe reports about torture of his relative by law enforcers

After the "1ADAT" channel had posted information about Salman Chachaev, who died after being beaten by law enforcers, the "Grozny" state-run TV Company made public a video in which a relative of Salman Chachaev pointed to the natural causes of his death. The video appeal provoked mistrust among Instagram users.

In the video posted on the Instagram public account by the "Grozny" state-run TV Company, Shirvani Chachaev, an uncle of Salman Chachaev, said that his nephew suffered from a tumour. "He got it after an accident. He was taking [medical treatment]. Doctors were doing everything they could. He died a natural death. What you say is not true," Shirvani Chachaev says.

The Instagram public account "1adat_official" reported about the death of Salman Chachaev, a resident of the village of Dyshni-Vedeno. According to the "1ADAT" channel, several days before his death, Salman Chachaev was detained by law enforcers on suspicion of drug use. After his detention, he was subjected to beatings and torture, the "1adat_official" reported on September 14.

"Being barely alive, Suleiman was handed over to his relatives. They were threatened with death and prohibited to make the incident public or attempt to take him to Russia for treatment. All Chechen hospitals got an instruction not to accept him or help him. Suleiman stayed at home for some time, but when they realized that he was dying, his relatives tried to take him to Ingushetia," the "1adat_official" reported.

Followers of the Instagram public account "Grozny TV" questioned the authenticity of the video with Shirvani Chachaev. "There's no smoke without fire. Although I <...> do not know what [happened] to them, but it is clear that the father is [saying] something wrong," user angelina_angel_7777 wrote. "Why relatives, and not the clinic, report the information about where he died? <In case of a clinic's report>, no questions would arise," user la837ra believes.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 16, 2020 at 06:43 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.