After statements of Khalitov's relatives, rights defenders assess threat to his life

The video messages with brothers and the father of the blogger, Khasan Khalitov, who is living in Turkey, were made under pressure; and Chechen authorities are using the family to intimidate their critics, the human rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have noted.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Khasan Khalitov's relatives had recorded video messages addressed to him at least twice. Thus, on November 30, a video message by Khasan Khalitov's father, Gani Khalitov, was posted. He accused his son of slandering the republic's leadership and stated that he wanted to kill him. On December 3, in their new video appeals, Khasan Khalitov's brothers urged him to stop criticizing the Chechen leadership.

In the opinion of Oleg Orlov, a board member of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial*, the father "does not even think about harming his son," but "nothing good" can be expected from relatives' threats.

One of Khasan Khalitov's brothers – Ramzan – had already recorded an appeal to a relative, Mr Orlov has noted. According to the human rights defender, this is done for the second time as a security act. "The fact that Chechen authorities are using families of their critics in order to intimidate other critics is disgusting, and ugly," Oleg Orlov has concluded.

The vague border of the death threat emanating from the father unties the hands of any person who wants to kill Khalitov, says Svetlana Gannushkina, the chair of the Civil Assistance" Committee*.

"If someone does something with him, he will think that it was done with the blessing of his father," Ms Gannushkina told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

*The organization has been put by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on the list of non-commercial organization (NCOs) performing the functions of a foreign agent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 6, 2021 at 09:16 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.