Rights defenders divide in assessing threats to Gezmakhmaev's relatives

The pressure on relatives of Suleiman Gezmakhmaev will give nothing to law enforcers, since the case has an incredible resonance, Ruslan Kutaev, President of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations, believes. Given the interest of Chechen authorities in Gezmakhmaev's public repentance, even his distant relatives should fear for their lives, Igor Kalyapin, the head of the Committee against Torture (CaT), is sure.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 15, the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper published a part of the investigation into extrajudicial executions in Chechnya from the words of Suleiman Gezmakhmaev, a former law enforcer. After the publication, law enforcers demanded from Suleiman to declare his story a fiction, otherwise his family would have problems, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" has reported.

Suleiman Gezmakhmaev's close relatives had been taken out of Russia long before he made his testimonies about torture in Chechnya, said Ruslan Kutaev, President of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations, stressing that "the case has an incredible resonance in the world; it has reached the European Human Rights Council."

In the opinion of Igor Kalyapin, the head of the "Committee against Torture" (CaT), even distant relatives should fear for their lives.

"Chechnya is Chechnya. Here both cousins and second cousins are regarded as closest relatives. Moreover, I don't exclude that those who left for Europe will be persecuted," Mr Kalyapin has added.

He believes that Gezmakhmaev's relatives will disown him in the near future in order to ensure their safety. However, this "does not guarantee them a carefree life."

Oleg Orlov, a board member of the HRC "Memorial", said that nothing is known about new threats to Gezmakhmaev's relatives.