In Chechnya, psychic hunt leads to persecution of clients

Several residents of Chechnya, who went to North Ossetia to visit a fortune-teller, repented on the air of the Chechen state-run TV Company after a local theologian criticized their behaviour from the point of view of Islam and threatened them with hell. In the TV story, the women vowed that they would no longer address people providing occult services.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in Chechnya, persecutions of sorcerers and psychics were launched in 2013, when, amid the fight against magicians and sorcerers announced by the head of Chechnya, dozens of people were detained, and some disappeared. Since this July, the Chechen authorities have once again intensified the persecution of people providing occult services.

A group of people, nicknamed the "physchic hunters" in the republic, has already exposed "dozens of swindlers," reported a 20-minute story shown by the "Grozny" ChGTRK (Chechen State TV and Radio Company) on October 7. The TV Channel showed footage of a conversation between theologian Adam Elzhurkaev and women from Chechnya, who went to North Ossetia to visit a fortune-teller for help in solving their family problems and were detained due to the joint efforts of theologians and law enforcers.

Adam Elzhurkaev and said that by going to physchics Chechen citizens disgraced themselves and their relatives. The theologian referred to the Koran and said that such Muslims would go to hell.

The women repented on a TV camera. "We went to visit <...> a woman engaged in fortune-telling. That was a wrong step, and [I] repented of it. I will never go anywhere like that place anymore," vowed Rita Datsaeva, one of the women who apologized on the air of the Chechen TV Channel.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 8, 2019 at 06:07 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.