ICRF refuses to investigate threats from Chechnya against advocate

The Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) has found no elements of the crime in the threats that advocate Tatiana Solomina received from a mother of her client from Chechnya. Investigators have refused to institute a criminal case. Tatiana Solomina intends to file an appeal against the ICRF’s decision.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on September 5, it became known that threats against advocate Tatiana Solomina and her son, in particular, the threats to kidnap the child, began to come after the advocate provided legal assistance to a resident of Chechnya who had fled from domestic violence. The threats come from a mother of the advocate’s client. Tatiana Solomina filed a complaint about the crime, but three days after the complaint had been filed, investigators still have not questioned her. Human rights defenders note that those who try to help victims of domestic violence in Northern Caucasus often find themselves at risk, as they begin to receive threats from the victim’s families.

The young man defended by Tatiana Solomina fled Chechnya in July, but he was tracked and removed from the train. Then his father flew to pick the young man up and take him back to the republic. The young man fears that his relatives might do their own justice: his father threatened to kill him, and his brother said that he “should be sent to prison to Kadyrov’s men.” The young man addressed advocate Tatiana Solomina for help.

Investigators refused to institute a case on threats received by advocate Tatiana Solomina, the “SK SOS Crisis Group”* reported in its Telegram channel. The check of the complaint was carried out ineffectively, a lawyer of the “SK SOS Crisis Group”* suggests.

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