Relatives report details of new case against Yapov, surrendered member of Chechen underground

Relatives are concerned about the health state of Khamid Yapov. The man served two terms of imprisonment for involvement in Chechen armed underground, but was arrested for the third time in December 2024. A human rights organization employee believes that the recent case against Khamid Yapov is part of a systemic problem of persecuting militants who surrendered in the hope of amnesty.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that in March 2012, the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya sentenced Khamidulla Yapov to 14 years of imprisonment in the case on the death of 84 Pskov paratroopers in the battles near Ulus-Kert in the Argun Gorge of Chechnya in 2000. Khamid Yapov was supposed to be released on December 13, 2024. However, law enforcers detained him while he was still being kept in the penal colony. The new charges were brought against Khamid Yapov, including participation in an armed mutiny, banditry, and an attempt on the lives of military personnel. The charges relate to a battle which took place near the village of Chervlyonnaya in the Shelkovsky District on October 4, 1999. Relatives of Khamid Yapov claimed that the criminal case was fabricated.

“His condition is poor: all his internal organs hurt, and his vision is deteriorating. He is also covered in scars from torture,” said Bela, a niece of Khamid Yapov.

According to an activist from the “Memorial” Centre for Human Rights Defence*, the reason for resuming the case against Khamid Yapov was the investigators’ hatred of those involved in the armed underground. “And the investigators’ desire to increase the crime detection rate,” the human rights defender added.

The “Memorial” Centre for Human Rights Defence (CHRD)* employee has noted that the investigations into torture charges in such cases are being conducted in a formal way. The human rights defender has suggested that similar cases are being fabricated as according to a template.

“Khamid Yapov surrendered, as he believed in the declared amnesty. Alavdi Batykaev also surrendered, although he was not a participant in the war, but turned out to be an internally displaced person (IDP) in the village of Selmentauzen in the Vedensky District, where a detachment of 71-73 fighters surrendered. And almost all of those who surrendered then began to be imprisoned ten years later,” the human rights defender from the “Memorial” (CHRD)* stated.

*As reported on the website of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the reason for including on March 1, 2024, the unregistered “Memorial” Centre for Human Rights Defence (CHRD) into the roster of foreign agents was the spread of “inaccurate information aimed at creating a negative image of the Russian Federation, as well as the Russian Armed Forces.”