Practice of public repentances strengthens fear in Chechnya

Public repentances widespread in Chechnya cannot be legal proof of a person's guilt, lawyers assert. The aim of forcing people to apologize is to intimidate them with a threat of humiliation, Lev Levinson, a human rights defender, believes.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 12, three locals suspected of thefts and frauds confessed to the crimes committed on the air of the "Grozny" ChGTRK (Chechen State TV and Radio Company).

A public repentance in media is not a legal confession, Nadezhda Ermolaeva, a lawyer, has noted. In practice, investigators manipulate the proofs, replacing them with "other documents," she has noted.

Lev Levinson, who is also an expert at the Human Rights Institute, sees in the Chechen practice of public repentances parallels with the Soviet past: repentances were pronounced at first open Stalin's political trials.

By forcing people to repent, authorities' agents act defiantly aiming to intimidate other people, Mr Levinson has added.

Subscribers of the "Grozny" ChGTRK on the Instagram comment on the videos with repentances of the men criminated of petty thefts. One of them stole a ram, another one – a PC, and the third one – a small amount of money. Some users treat public humiliations as an inappropriate punishment for such offenses.