Chechen woman publicly repents of witchcraft

Esimat Uspakhadjieva has become at least the third in two months heroine of the plot of the "Grozny" TV channel, who repented of providing occult services. Following Ramzan Kadyrov's instruction, law enforcers are searching for people engaged in "fraudulent activities" in Chechnya, the police have explained.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that this summer, the Chechen authorities intensified the persecution of people who render occult services. In particular, in July, they detained two female residents of Gudermes for practicing magic and healing.

On September 14, the "Grozny" TV channel showed a report about Esimat Uspakhadjieva, a resident of the village of Kargalinovskaya in the Shelkovskoy District, who was engaged in "witchcraft". The authors of the plot noted that the woman had been practicing witchcraft for 37 years, and had a "massive clientele."

Ms Uspakhadjieva has stated that she predicted the future with the help of stones, improved relations in case of family problems, and jinns helped her. She also declared her complete repentance.

Residents of Chechnya have noticed similarity of the report with the television show demonstrated on September 11 about Sekinat Ibragimova. "Both the old 'sorceress' and the new one spoke standard phrases about their repentance and urged their clients not to turn to them again. It seems that they were dictated what to say," said Fatima, an NGO employee.

Meanwhile, as noted by Igor Alekseev, an Orientalist, there is no clear borderline between what is called the treatment according to the Sunnah with the reading of the Koran and what Muslims can perceive as witchcraft.