11:25, 7 October 2020

Mother of Chechen Movsar Umarov achieves initiation of murder case

A criminal murder case has been opened at the demand of the mother of Movsar Umarov, a missing Grozny resident after the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has drawn attention to his disappearance.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Russia answered to the ECtHR's questions that Umarov had not been exposed to cruel treatment by law enforcers. Human rights defenders found these explanations unconvincing.

Movsar Umarov, a resident of Grozny, was detained on July 18, 2020, for watching a video posted by the Chechen critical blogger, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, and then disappeared, his mother said, suggesting that her son had fallen victim to extrajudicial execution. Umarov's relatives doubt that he is alive, since they receive no news from him.

Chechen law enforcers are trying to convince detainees' relatives not to turn to human rights organizations, the 1Adat Telegram Channel has recalled.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 6, 2020 at 09:05 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.