Rights defenders hold Chechen authorities responsible for Gakaev's murder

The authorities and law enforcers should have paid attention to Turpal-Ali Shamurzaev's posts about his fight against witches and react to them; this could have prevented the murder of Mullah Gakaev, human rights defenders have stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that, relatives of Shamurzaev, accused of killing Abdurakhim Gakaev, stated that they were disgraced by their relative's actions and expressed a desire to reconcile with the casualty's relatives. The families' reconciliation was held in the village of Kadi-Yurt.

Oyub Titiev, a rights defender, has called Shamurzaev an inadequate person. "There are his many different posts on the Internet; some are completely stupid. But they should have been traced by agents of power structures and the Ministry of Press of Chechnya ... Surely, if someone had monitored this, it would have been possible to contact the author and prevent this crime," Mr Titiev is sure.

According to his story he knows many members of the Shamurzaev family. "They are adequate, decent and intelligent people. I assume that they were unaware of all the posts placed by their 30-year-old relative in social networks ... No one could ever imagine that these posts could lead to the Imam's death," Mr Titiev has summed up.

This incident has unsettled not only members of the Shamurzaev family, but also all the villagers of Komsomolskoye, where they live, one of the residents of Chechnya has informed.

According to Ruslan Kutaev, the President of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations, he was amazed at the large number of posts, the authors of which swear their loyalty to Kadyrov and readiness to fulfil any of his orders. "And the posts by Turpal-Ali Shamurzaev find their rightful place among these outpourings, accompanied, moreover, by his ardent desire to free the republic from sorcerers ... But now, after what has happened with Imam Gakaev, such posts will be studied more carefully," Mr Kutaev predicts.

"When everyone had turned away from Shamurzaev, he came to Gakaev so that he could remove the hoodoo from him, believing that he would help him become a normal human. The Imam (Mullah) saw that the guy was sick and it was difficult to help him by prayers alone, and made it clear, apparently, that he couldn't help him in any way. In the end, the killing happened," Mr Kutaev believes, adding that on the Internet, he had found many photos of Shamurzaev with a weapon in his hands. "According to some information, he had served in special forces." Ruslan Kutaev has emphasized that Chechen special forces servicemen, following orders, commit "terrible crimes," and suggested that this murder could have been ordered by someone.