Seda Suleimanova, who escaped from domestic violence, returned to Chechnya voluntarily, prosecutor’s office reports

After checking a complaint about the detention of Seda Suleimanova by Chechen law enforcers, the prosecutor’s office announced that the young woman voluntarily left for Chechnya from Saint Petersburg, human rights defenders reported.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on August 23, 2023, law enforcers visited 26-year-old Seda Suleimanova, who fled from Chechnya to Saint Petersburg, and her fiancé, and detained them, explaining that the young woman was suspected of stealing jewellery. At a picket held in front of the Saint Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office on February 1, a friend claimed that nothing had been reported about the fate of Seda Suleimanova for more than 150 days.

The human rights defenders received a response from the prosecutor’s office to their complaint in which they requested prosecutors to check the actions of the law enforcers who took Seda Suleimanova to Chechnya and the fact of her disappearance, reported the “SK SOS Crisis Group”*. “The complaint was filed in August 2023 immediately after the advocates failed to find Seda Suleimanova at the police station in Grozny. The prosecutor’s office launched an investigation only after hundreds of complaints had been filed ... However, the response from the prosecutor’s office contains a lot of peculiarities. In particular, neither the policemen nor the Seda’s detention are mentioned,” reports the “SK SOS Crisis Group”* in its Telegram channel.

According to the response from the prosecutor’s office, Seda Suleimanova was summoned for questioning and voluntarily went to Grozny to give evidence, after which she went to joint her family.

The above version contradicts the words of Stanislav Kudryavtsev, a fiancé of Seda Suleimanova, the human rights defenders point out. They refer to him as saying: “When Seda opened the door, they (the law enforcers) immediately burst into the apartment. She fell to the floor, shook in shock. Seda was crying and saying that she would be killed at home. She called that an ‘honour killing’.”

In addition, there is a video recording of a conversation between an advocate of Seda Suleimanova and policemen from Saint Petersburg, who reported that the young woman was taken away by the law enforcers from Chechnya.

Let us remind you that on February 7, the “SK SOS Crisis Group”* reported that sources in Chechnya voiced a version of the Seda Suleimanova’s murder by her relatives. The long absence of information about the fate of Seda Suleimanova does not give reason to believe that she was killed, experts note.

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