The Supreme Court of Chechnya recognized as legal the refusal to initiate a criminal case for the murder of the kidnapped chat moderator of the opposition telegram channel 1ADAT Salman Tepsurkaev. His whereabouts and fate have been unknown since 2020. Human rights activists are convinced that the young man was killed by security forces.

Lawyers for the “Team Against Torture” said that the Investigative Committee for Chechnya still does not consider Tepsurkaev dead, and the criminal case is being investigated under the article of kidnapping. In addition, the court in Grozny at least three times refused to satisfy the complaint to recognize Tepsurkaev’s wife as the victim (they have a religious marriage).

Let us recall that on September 7, 2020, a video of Salman Tepsurkaev’s self-torture appeared on social networks. He was a moderator of the chat of the telegram channel 1ADAT, in which the current regime in Chechnya is criticized.

According to human rights activists, the young man was kidnapped from a hotel in Gelendzhik and taken to Grozny, after which he was forced to sit on a bottle naked in front of the camera. Novaya Gazeta wrote that he was kept on the territory of the police patrol regiment named after A. Kadyrov in Grozny. Team Against Torture lawyer Olga Sadovskaya reported that the young man was killed.