Rights defenders treat checks in case of Suleimanova, who fled from domestic violence, as shams

Human rights defenders are sure that the transfer of the complaint against law enforcers' actions filed by Lena Patyaeva, a Seda Suleimanova's friend, to Chechnya can only be a formal reply or an imitation of the inquiry. Meanwhile, in most cases, law enforcers are siding with the families of victims of domestic violence.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that this August Lena Patyaeva demanded from the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) to initiate a criminal case in connection with law enforcers' actions during the abduction of her friend, Seda Suleimanova, committed a year ago. They detained Seda and allowed her to be sent to Chechnya despite her words about the impending repressions. In June, Patyaeva stated that three months after the case was initiated, investigators had not come to any conclusions, and the inquiry was being sabotaged.

Now, the transfer of the above Lena's complaint to Chechnya will yield no results, Svetlana Gannushkina*, the head of the "Civic Assistance" Committee*, is sure. "The problem is that neither Petersburg nor Chechen investigators want to search for Seda," she has stated.

The human rights defenders' experience of working in Northern Caucasus allows stating unequivocally that no crimes committed by policemen in Chechnya are investigated efficiently, Sergey Babinets, a rights defender, is sure.

"We are running into a wall of unwillingness to hold policemen accountable. In Chechnya, it is most often dictated by investigators' total fear before policemen, who are backed up by those close to the head of Chechnya and by Ramzan Kadyrov personally," Sergey has emphasized.

"However, the Seda's case is unique. For the first time in our practice, we managed to achieve significant action from the investigative bodies, despite their initial unwillingness to do anything," Alexandra Miroshnikova, the press secretary of the SK SOS Crisis Group*, has noted.

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