EU imposes sanctions against two Chechen law enforcers

Abuzaid Vismuradov, a commander of the “Terek” unit, and Ayub Kataev, the former chief of the Argun police, have been banned from entering the EU countries because of their involvement in torture, extrajudicial executions, and harassment of LGBT people in the republic.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 15, the newspaper “Novaya Gazeta” made public an interview with Suleiman Gezmakhmaev, a former fighter of the Akhmat Kadyrov special-purpose police regiment, who witnessed extrajudicial killings. The material provoked public outcry both in Chechnya, where relatives of the police regiment's fighters accused an author of the article of provocations, and beyond Russia. The Russian authorities should study the information made public by the newspaper “Novaya Gazeta” about extrajudicial killings in Chechnya, stated Dunja Mijatović, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe.

“Abuzaid Vismuradov and the ‘Terek’ unit under his command are responsible for serious human rights violations in Russia, in particular, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, as well as arbitrary arrests and detentions and extrajudicial and arbitrary killings and executions,” the EU clarification states.

“The repressions are directed against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons, those presumed to belong to LGBTI groups and other individuals suspected of being opponents of Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the Chechen Republic,” the EU clarification claims.

In December 2017, the US included Ramzan Kadyrov himself to the Magnitsky sanctions list and called him responsible for extrajudicial executions, torture, and other human rights violations in Chechnya.