Lawyers treat court's refusal to release Musaeva as predictable

The refusal to apply the conditional early relief (CER) to Zarema Musaeva was caused by the political nature of her case, but among other factors, her rather long remaining prison term and the defence's incorrect information policy have also played their role, lawyers have stated. The decision was made personally by Kadyrov, Abubakar Yangulbaev, Zarema's son, is sure.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 5, the colony administration in Argun, where Musaeva is serving her sentence, opposed her release. It has stated that Musaeva had been in the colony for a short time and refused to plead guilty.

The ruling of the Shali City Court will be appealed against, Alexander Savin, one of Zarema's advocates, has promised, adding that Musaeva's term ends on June 23, 2025.

According to a lawyer experienced in Northern Caucasus, the CER was denied due to the resonance of the case and the incorrect information work of the "Team Against Torture" (TaT)*. "They wrote about the application of the CER immediately in the affirmative: "Then, such and such a court will make a decision on the CER"  ... I think this should have been reported differently. They say that on such and such a date the Shali City Court will begin considering Zarema Musaeva's CER application," the lawyer has explained, stressing that the Musaeva's remaining term is still quite long.

The court's decision is not surprising, Mikhail Benyash**, a lawyer, has confirmed, pointing out a possible material interest of employees of the FSIN (Russian Federal Penitentiary Service).

According to Abubakar Yangulbaev, one of Musaeva's sons, who is himself a lawyer and human rights defender, the court's decision is "a priori illegal." "For all the reasons, my mother should be released – starting from her state of health and ending with little things – that she has no regime violations, her characteristics are good, she has no previous convictions, and so on," he has stated.

*The "Team against Torture" (TaT, formerly the "Committee against Torture" – CaT) was created by the lawyers who had earlier worked for the CaT, which was included into the register of the NCOs performing the functions of foreign agents.

**Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.