A Chechen female refugee given out to her father after detention in Minsk

On September 4, Luiza Dudurkaeva, a 21-year-old native of the Argun city, who had been granted the refugee status in Norway, was detained in Minsk. She was given out to her father, who took her to some unknown destination. Meanwhile, Luiza Dudurkaeva left Chechnya after threats. This was announced by psychologist Valentina Likhoshva and the young woman's lawyer, the website of the Belarusian human rights centre (HRC) "Viasna" (Spring) reports.

The lawyer and the psychologist believe that there is a threat to the Luiza Dudurkaeva's life in Chechnya.

"I believe she changed her decision under the influence of threats ... I seriously fear for her life and health," stated Valentina Likhoshva.

In late June, Luiza Dudurkaeva fled Chechnya because of threats she got after her photo had been published in the group "Carthage" in the social network VKontakte. Rights defenders helped the young woman, and on August 31, she got refugee documents and a Schengen visa for Norway, the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" reports.

According to a sister of Luiza Dudurkaeva, unidentified people wrote to Luiza that she allegedly "behaved not like a Chechen woman should behave," insulted her and threatened her with reprisals.

On the "Carthage" page in the social network VKontakte, group members posted photographs of Chechen women from their Instagram pages, sometimes with links to the victims' relatives, whom the group members urged to pay attention to the women's behaviour in social networks. This was reported in the article "'Carthage' in Chechnya: the 'morality police' is watching you" published on the Open Russia's website. In the photographs, the members of the "Carthage" group painted over the open parts of the women's bodies, but not their names.

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