Court sides with mother of missing Chechen Movsar Umarov in her dispute with investigators

In Grozny, a court recognized illegal the investigators’ refusal to provide Eset Umarova with all the materials of the criminal case on the disappearance of her son Movsar Umarov. The above court’s decision will allow the woman assess the investigators’ work, human rights defenders explain.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on April 7, 2020, it became known that the mother of Movsar Umarov requested to resume the investigation into her son’s disappearance, but the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya dismissed the request.

On April 25, the Visaitovsky District Court of Grozny recognized illegal the actions of the investigator who did not provide Eset Umarova with all the materials of the criminal case for examination, an activist of the “Team Against Torture” (TaT)* reported.

Let us remind you that Eset Umarova complained that her son was detained on July 18, 2020 for viewing the blog of Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a critic of the Chechen authorities. The woman suggested that her son fell victim to an extrajudicial killing. Relatives of Movsar Umarov doubt that he is alive, as they have not received any news from him. Konstantin Gusev, a lawyer of the “Team Against Torture” (TaT)*, reported that investigators refused to check possible persons involved in the disappearance of Movsar Umarov.

*The “Team against Torture” (TaT, formerly the “Committee against Torture” – CaT) was created by the lawyers who had earlier worked for the CaT, which was included into the register of the NCOs performing the functions of foreign agents.