Chechen investigators refuse treating Salman Tepsurkaev's wife as victim

Elizaveta, Salman Tepsurkaev's wife, has received the third refusal to recognize her as a victim. The decision of Chechen investigators will be appealed against in court, said Leisan Mannapova, a lawyer with the Committee against Torture (CaT).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in September 2020, a video clip, in which a naked Tepsurkaev was sitting on a bottle, explaining that he was doing this as a punishment for cooperating with the Telegram channel 1Adat, which criticizes Chechen authorities, triggered a broad resonance in Chechnya and beyond. Since then, Tepsurkaev never got in touch with his relatives, who, based on the location of his phone, believe that after his kidnapping in the Krasnodar Territory, he was brought to some power body in Grozny. Tepsurkaev's wife filed a complaint with the Gelendjik court against the investigators' refusal to recognize her as a victim in the case of her husband's kidnapping.

Arsemik Mukaev, an investigator of the Investigating Department for Chechnya of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), refused to satisfy the petition lodged by Elizaveta Tepsurkaeva, Salman's wife, asking to recognize her as the suffered party in the case, said Leisan Mannapova, a CaT's lawyer, who is representing Elizaveta's interests.

This is the third refusal, including two refusals received in Gelendjik, Ms Mannapova has added.

According to her story, the refusal of the Chechen investigators to satisfy this petition, as well as the absence of an answer thereto within the time limits established by the law, will be appealed against in court.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 22, 2021 at 10:30 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.