Chechen refugee in Germany faces deportation

The German Constitutional Court is considering the case of Akhmed Seriev, a native of Chechnya, who left Russia after his brother Magomed was kidnapped in 2016; supposedly, Magomed fell victim to an extrajudicial execution. Akhmed and his mother applied for asylum in Germany, but were refused.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in March 2018, the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) passed a resolution not to initiate a criminal case on extrajudicial executions of 27 people in Chechnya, which the "Novaya Gazeta" reported in July 2017. In September 2019, relatives of the people from the so-called "execution list" filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) that Russian authorities had failed to efficiently investigate the reports about extrajudicial executions.

Now, Akhmed Seriev, a native of Chechnya, faces deportation from Germany. He left Chechnya after his brother Magomed was kidnapped from their home and was allegedly among those executed in January 2017 during a mass extrajudicial execution, the Deutsche Welle wrote on January 19.

Ahmed arrived in Germany in transit in December of the same year with his mother. They asked for asylum, but first the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, and then the first-instance and the appellate courts denied their applications, and for the last time – without the right to appeal against. Currently, the case is being considered by the Constitutional Court of Germany; and if it upholds the arguments of the lower courts, then Seriev and his mother will be deported.

Akhmed fears that in his homeland he is threatened with kidnapping and torture, and maybe even death.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 20, 2022 at 03:33 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.