In Grozny, court refuses to grant complaint of Tepsurkaev’s wife for third time

In Grozny, a district court has once again refused to recognize a wife of Salman Tepsurkaev as a victim in the case on his kidnapping. An appeal against the court’s decision will be filed to the Supreme Court of Chechnya, human rights defenders announce.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that Salman Tepsurkaev, a native of Chechnya, was killed in September 2020 and buried in an unmarked grave. On June 22, 2021, Chechen investigators refused to recognize Elizaveta, a wife of Salman Tepsurkaev, as a victim. In October 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found the authorities of Russia responsible for the disappearance and torture of Salman Tepsurkaev and obliged them to pay compensation of 26,000 euros. On April 6, the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya again cancelled the decision of a lower instance court which refused to recognize the common-law wife of Salman Tepsurkaev as a victim in the case on his kidnapping.

In Grozny, the court for the third time has refused to grant the complaint about the recognition of the wife of Salman Tepsurkaev as a victim, reports Roman Veretennikov, a lawyer of the “Team Against Torture”**. “The motives remained the same as in the first two decisions. At the same time, the first instance court does not take into account the shortcomings pointed out by the Supreme Court,” the “Kavkaz.Realii”*** quoted him as saying.

*In July 2021, the Zavodskoi District Court of Grozny recognized a number of posts by the “1Adat” Telegram channel as extremist and also recognized the “1Adat” Movement’s Internet resources as prohibited, and in May 2022, the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya recognized the “1Adat” Movement itself as an extremist organization and banned its activities in the territory of Russia.

**The “Team Against Torture” (formerly the “Committee Against Torture”) was created by lawyers who previously worked for the “Committee Against Torture” (CaT), which was included in the register of NCOs performing the functions of foreign agents.

***Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.