Human rights defenders expose Umarov's slyness

Djambulat Umarov, the Chechen Minister for National Policy, has denied the fact that residents of the republic had been detained for disseminating a collage with Kadyrov. However, the minister's slip of the tongue about the need to "warn a dozen troublemakers and scoundrels" means that there had really been detentions of Chechen residents, the rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 25, 2020, media reported about the detention in Chechnya of 25 persons, involved in spreading a photo collage, in which Kadyrov is depicted in the attire of an Orthodox priest. On January 27, the above Djambulat Umarov stated that reports about the detention of 25 Chechen residents are untrue. At the same time, he announced that the punishment for authors of collages and caricatures is permissible and appropriate.

Ruslan Kutaev, the president of the "Assembly of Caucasian Nations", believes that Umarov's slip of the tongue about the need "to warn a dozen troublemakers and scoundrels" means that they still had detained someone there.

Mr Kutaev has suggested that the collage is "a protest against authorities' lawlessness, which can be expressed in any form."

According to Igor Kalyapin, the head of the "Committee against Torture" (CaT), when watched the video with Umarov's comment, he had a thought "didn't he mean that still there were arrests?"

He has emphasized that in case of extrajudicial detentions, detainees' relatives should apply to law enforcement bodies.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 29, 2020 at 04:06 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.