Adat experts find no excuses for bullying Chechen Tepsurkaev

The torture of Salman Tepsurkaev has nothing to do with Chechen Adats (traditions), Sergey Arutyunov, a historian, believes. Tepsurkayev's offenders must definitely be punished, Aset Malsagova, a human rights defender, is sure.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the video, in which a naked man sits on a bottle, explaining that this was his punishment for cooperating with the oppositional 1ADAT Telegram Channel, caused broad resonance in Chechnya.

Tepsurkaev had to choose between death and shame, says Sergey Arutyunov, a historian. Chechen Adats provide for punishment in the form of public shame, but not in the form of sitting on a bottle, he has explained.

Chechens have no Adats that prescribe humiliation of a person, but there are a number of principles according to which a person should be punished for a particular offence, Aset Malsagova, a Chechen human rights defender, has added.

She has noted that in general, Adats do not regulate sexual violence, she said. "According to our ancestors' traditions, a man was unambiguously deprived of his life for sexual violence. If we talk about insulting a woman, then, according to Chechen traditions, they took off his pants and drove him through the village. This was the highest punishment," Ms Malsagova has concluded.