24 March 2021, 20:25
Gezmakhmaev's relatives criticize him on air of state-run TV Company
Former policeman Suleiman Gezmakhmaev, who gave to the newspaper “Novaya Gazeta” an interview about the extrajudicial executions in Chechnya, used psychotropic substances and fled Russia, while owing large amounts of money. This was reported by his relatives on the air of the “Grozny” TV Channel.
After the “Novaya Gazeta” had posted its article, relatives of Suleiman Gezmakhmaev in Chechnya received threats. The law enforcement bodies requested them to disclose the whereabouts of a mother, a brother, and a sister of the former policeman. The law enforcers also demanded from the former policeman’s relatives that Suleiman should declare his story a fiction, otherwise his family would have problems, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”* reported.
According to Igor Kalyapin, the head of the Committee Against Torture (CaT), taking into account the interest of the Chechen authorities in the Suleiman Gezmakhmaev's repentance, even his distant relatives should fear for their lives.
In a story posted on Instagram, an uncle of Suleiman Gezmakhmaev reported that when his nephew was still in Chechnya, his family noticed that he had lost a lot of weight and found that the policeman was using drugs. "He got hooked on them, and he began to lose his mind. He got into debt," Salman Gezmakhmaev claimed.
The uncle of the former policeman noted that after leaving Chechnya, Suleiman Gezmakhmaev did not get in touch with his relatives. According to the uncle, the relatives had to pay off debts for Suleiman.
Let us remind you that after the publication of Suleiman Gezmakhmaev's story in the “Novaya Gazeta”, fighters from the Akhmat Kadyrov special-purpose police regiment appealed to President Vladimir Putin and urged him to stop “an information war” against their regiment.
the HRC "Memorial" is recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 24, 2021 at 04:25 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
