In Chechnya, detainees publicly repent of drug use

On December 3, the Muftiate of Chechnya reported that in the Urus-Martan District of Chechnya, several young people repented of using psychotropic substances. The Chechen Muftiate also posted a photo of a "warning conversation" held by law enforcers for the detainees. Instagram users and residents of the Chechen Republic considered such a public humiliation as excessive.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in October and November, at least three posts about "warning conversations" at police departments with people detained for drinking alcoholic beverages and using psychotropic substances were posted in Chechen public accounts.

The next preventive conversation with young people detained for using "narcotic and psychotropic drugs," as well as for driving while being in state of alcoholic intoxication, was conducted by Valid Batsilov, the chief of the Department for the Urus-Martan District of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), and Alu Amerkhanov, Qadi for the Urus-Martan District, the press service of the Muftiate of Chechnya reported on December 3.

The Chechen Muftiate's report is accompanied with photographs in which about a dozen young men stood along the wall with their heads bowed down.

Some users of social networks were critical of the report. "If they made a tawba (an act of being repentant for one's misdeeds), they repented, so why do you hold them up to view," wrote, in particular, user sss_umarov in the "ChP/Chechnya" public account.

Umar, an activist of a Chechen NGO, also considered the public post as excessive and described it as "public humiliation" of the detainees. "The phenomenon is already of regular nature," the NGO activist told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In turn, Lechi, a resident of Chechnya, treats such posts as PR steps made by the authorities. "There is no sense in such public repentance of drug addicts or alcoholics. They (law enforcers and theologians) present a 'result' to the leader of Chechnya," the resident of Chechnya told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 4, 2019 at 12:02 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.