Heroes of film about kidnappings and killings in Chechnya are under threat

The heroes of the documentary "Chechnya: War without Trace", which tells about gross violation of human rights in the region, may be prosecuted, said the rights defenders questioned by the "Caucasian Knot".

The film by a French journalist Manon Loizeau, which is available, since March 15, on the video hosting YouTube, featured relatives of victims of kidnappings and torture. In particular, a mother of two killed Chechen girls told that her son has received threats from power agents that should he continued searching for his sisters, a case would be initiated against him, and he would be accused of killing them.

The film was made by the French journalist secretly. Manon Loizeau told in her interview to Radio Liberty that she visited Chechnya for 12 times, and at each arrival she stayed there for no more than three days, trying not to put people at risk. The filming was over in the fall of 2014. On March 3, 2015, the documentary was screened by the Franco-German TV Channel ARTE.

In the opinion of Igor Kalyapin, the head of the Committee against Torture and a member of the Presidential Council on Human Rights, the screening of the film in Russia may become dangerous for its heroes, who permanently live in Chechnya.

"Without the knowledge of French, I didn't understand the comments off-screen, but since half of the film is in Russian, I got the general idea. The film is not safe for the people shown there; and it was not by chance that the rights-holder was against putting the film on the Russian segment of the Internet," Kalyapin told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.