In Chechnya, local resident confesses of murdering his female relative

A resident of the Kurchaloi District of Chechnya came to the police station to confess to the murder of his close female relative for "immoral behaviour".

According to the law enforcement bodies of the republic, the murder was committed by the man yet in this April, and the killed 21-year-old young woman was on the list of missing persons.

"Several days ago a local resident came to the police station of Kurchaloi District to confess. He confessed that in this April he murdered his 21-year-old cousin. According to his story, the reason for the murder of his female relative was the fact that she led an immoral life. The body of the young woman who was killed by a blow on her head with a stone, the man buried in the cemetery of the village of Mairtup. The remains of the dead woman were exhumed and brought to examination," said a police officer.

The so called "honour killings", which are in fact extrajudicial executions of women and girls suspected of immoral behaviour and extramarital affairs, have long been treated by many people in Chechnya as an acceptable form of punishment.

It is believed that a woman suspected of extramarital affairs and, even the more, of prostitution may be killed by her close relatives on the paternal side. By killing a young woman caught in immoral behaviour, her family and entire kin are supposedly wiping out disgrace from them. In many cases, relatives of the killed woman made no funeral memorial and explained her disappearance by the fact that she allegedly went to distant relatives.

However, not all people in Chechnya consider "honour killings" to be necessary. According to a resident of the republic, in the past, women found guilty of adultery were not killed and punished in another way.

"In recent years, it becomes "fancy" to kill a girl or a woman if she was caught in an extramarital affair with a man; and in the past it was not a case. Prior to our deportation to Kazakhstan, women for immoral behaviour were cut nostrils by their relatives. And it was a stigma for the entire life, although it was believed that the guilty woman suffered due punishment, and, thus, her family wiped out disgrace. Even in early years after deportation to Kazakhstan that punishment was practiced; however, then gradually it disappeared. And now for any suspicion a woman or a girl might be killed, although a considerable part of the blame for what had happened is laid on men," believes Khassan M., a resident of the city of Grozny.

"My grandmother told me that, in the past, at least two witnesses were necessary to prove adultery of a girl or infidelity of a woman. Moreover, even if a guy and a girl were caught in the same bed, it was necessary to prove adultery. That is, strong evidence was needed, and only then a decision was made. At present, however, if a man started a rumour that he spent night with a girl, her relatives immediately rush to "wipe out disgrace" without bothering to find out the truth," stated a female employee of a local NGO.