Chechnya: theologian publicly scolds detainees for witchcraft

Adam Elzhurkaev, the head of the Centre for Islamic Medicine, has held a conversation with those detained for rendering occult services. Social network users have disputed on whether a taxi driver should respond for where he had taken his clients.

A TV report about "a whole chain" of those involved in witchcraft – two women and two men – was shown by the "Grozny" TV Channel. "All these people don't know each other, but they are links of one crime – witchcraft. Each plays his/her role – there is a client, a sorcerer, and even a taxi driver," the report states, adding that Petimat Demilkhanova "first fell for sorcerers' bait herself, and then began acting as mediator."

Another detainee, Zalikhan Magomadova, "claims to have a gift, treating herself as an angel, stating she communicates with the Almighty and sees prophets in dreams when asleep."

Russia envisages criminal punishment of psychics and magicians, but it is difficult to prove a fraudulent intent in such cases, therefore law enforcers don't really like such cases, Abusupyan Gaitaev, an advocate, has noted.

Let us remind you that the hunt for sorcerers in Chechnya has transformed into persecution of their clients. Thus, on January 17, 2021, Elzhurkaev scolded men from the Shali District and the taxi driver who drove them for their travel to a witch.