23:32, 24 September 2020

Chechen woman sentenced to four years of imprisonment after help from authorities

Lizan Isakova, a resident of Grozny, and her son Khazbulat in the courtroom. Screenshot: Grozny information agency https://grozny-inform.ru/news/society/122161/

A court found a woman from Grozny and her son, who had obtained better housing conditions from the authorities of Chechnya, guilty of fraud and sentenced each of them to four years of imprisonment in a penal colony.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in April 2019, Lizan Isakova appealed to the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" with a request for help. The woman stated that she was paralyzed and lost her vision, but the authorities refused to resettle her from a dilapidated house, although Magomed Daudov, the speaker of the Chechen parliament, ordered to improve her living conditions back in 2017. On July 3, 2019, Lizan Isakova and her son were arrested in a case on fraud with status of a disabled person.

In 2019, Lizan Isakova stated that a staff member of the HRC "Memorial" asked her to pretend being disabled, although he was aware she had no disabilities. Galina Tarasova, an advocate of the HRC "Memorial", called the accusations against human rights defenders absurd.

The woman received help in the repair of her apartment and its arrangement, and the amount of damage caused by the Lizan Isakova and her son amounted to 1.2 million roubles, the "Grozny" TV Channel reported on its official website. Video surveillance cameras installed in the apartment helped to reveal that Lizan Isakova was not a disabled person.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 24, 2020 at 04:05 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.