Residents of Chechnya report about departure of Hajj participants and combatants' family members to war in Syria

One of the residents of Chechnya, who made his pilgrimage to Muslims holy, moved from Saudi Arabia to Syria to take part in the armed conflict, other Chechen Hajj participants have reported. Local residents also inform that combatants' wives leave for the Middle East to join their husbands. According to the journalist Orhan Cemal, now from 200 to 400 Russian citizens are taking part in the Syrian conflict.

"Mostly sons of former militants, many of whom grew up in Europe, go to take part in the war there," said a source from the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). According to his story, most of them get to Syria from Turkey, where they come mainly from Azerbaijan, Georgia and other regions of the Caucasus and Transcaucasia.

In the opinion of Musa Muradov, a correspondent of the "Kommersant" Publishing House, most of the Chechens involved in the armed conflict in Syria, came there from Europe, having received their initial ideological treatment through the Internet.

As stated by Musa Pliev, a lawyer from the law firm "Musaev and Partners", the Russian citizens-members of illegal armed formations (IAFs) in Syria can be prosecuted when they return home. However, he doubts as to the chances of obtaining evidence for prosecuting them in Russia.

Earlier, Asu Dudurkaev, the head of the Russia's Federal Migration Service (FMS) for Chechnya, was dismissed, in particular, because his daughter is among the participants of the warfare – this was reported on November 21 by the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in his account on the Instagram.