Head of Chechen community in Norilsk calls for unbiased investigation into Visaev’s case

In his video appeal, the head of the Chechen community in Norilsk has announced serious inconsistencies in a case against Apti Visaev, a native of Chechnya, accused of plotting a terror act in Norilsk.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that in August, Aisha Mutaeva, a spouse of Apti Visaev, a 36-year-old native of Chechnya, said that the charge of aiding and abetting militants brought against her husband had been based on trumped-up evidence.

Today, the “Media without Borders” YouTube channel posted a video entitled “Head of the Chechen Diaspora speaks in defence of Apti Visaev”. In the video, an old man addresses friends of Apti Visaev, calling the names of Radmir and Ibragim. The man explains that he himself is the elder of the Chechen community in Norilsk.

When mentioning the name of Radmir, the elder clarifies that he speaks of the man with whom Apti Visaev was serving his sentence in a penal colony. “You were friends with him (Apti Visaev). How could you betray him? ... The man faces life imprisonment,” the elder says with a reproach.

In the next fragment of the video, the man greets and addresses “the entire audience that follows the events in Norilsk and, in particular, the Apti Visaev’s case.”

“There are a lot of inconsistencies regarding his detention and arrest. I am not an investigator, not a police officer or a prosecutor. Nevertheless, the inconsistencies are obvious to me. Therefore, as the oldest man in the Chechen community in the city of Norilsk, I draw your attention to those inconsistencies,” the elder states.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 7, 2021 at 12:42 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.