Defence treats extension of Musaeva's arrest as unlawful

A court in Grozny has extended the arrest of Zarema Musaeva in the case of disrupting the work of the SIZO (pre-trial prison) until February 24, 2025.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya refused to satisfy the defence's complaint against Musaeva’s freedom restraint measure in the new case of disrupting the work of the SIZO. Human rights defenders have noted that the advocate was notified about the hearing a 1.5 hours before it began.

According to investigators, Musaeva had attacked a SIZO employee who was accompanying her to the day hospital for treatment.

The decision to extend the arrest will be appealed against. "To agree with the freedom restraint measure in this case is the same as to agree with the charges; because the measure was chosen precisely because of the new charges," the "Team against Torture" (TaT)* has explained.

In Musaeva’s persecution, Svetlana Gannushkina**, the head of the Civic Assistance Committee**, sees parallels with the campaign to kidnap relatives of critics of Chechen authorities.

On December 22 to 24, 2022, Kadyrov critics, Tumso Abdurakhmanov**, Minkail Malizaev, and Khasan Khalitov, reported the kidnapping of their relatives in Chechnya; there were also reports of the kidnapping of relatives of Mansur Sadulaev, the founder of “Vayfond” Association, and of human rights defender Aslan Artsuev. In 2024, Khasan Khalitov and Mansur Movlaev reported the kidnapping of their relatives.

Ms Gannushkina** is sure that Musaeva is being persecuted because of her sons. "But her sons’ behaviour doesn’t justify the cruelty and arbitrariness of the so-called law enforcement bodies," she has stated.

Let us remind you that in the case of disorganizing the work of the colony, Musaeva faces up to five years in jail. Sergey Babinets, the head of the TaT* has linked the new case against Musaeva with a post placed by one of her sons in a social network.

*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.