Relatives of the Yangulbaev family disowned them on the air of the Grozny TV channel

Relatives of the family of Saydi Yangulbaev and Zarema Musayeva, persecuted by the Chechen authorities, representatives of the Chechen teip Keloy, renounced them on the air of the Grozny TV channel and promised to kill them when they met. A fragment of the broadcast was published on the channel’s Instagram.

Among these relatives is Said-Emin Yangulbaev, who disappeared in December 2021. His nephew, human rights activist Abubakar Yangulbaev, noted that his loved ones were probably forced to speak out on television. “I know that he will not renounce me, just as I will not renounce him. We all love and respect each other, and I don’t believe what was said in that video,” writes Yangulbaev.

The Supreme Court of Chechnya stripped Saidi Yangulbaev of his status as a retired judge and, therefore, of his immunity. A number of high-ranking Chechen officials, as well as State Duma deputy Adam Delimkhanov, had recently made threats against the Yangulbaev family. “We have no more important job than finding you and cutting off your heads,” officials said. Earlier, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, spoke in a similar way. “A place awaits this family either in prison or underground,” he wrote in his Telegram channel.

• After his retirement, Saydi Yangulbaev lived with his wife Zarema Musaeva in Nizhny Novgorod. Musaeva was taken to Chechnya on January 20. In the evening, unknown persons who introduced themselves as police officers came to her home. The security forces showed Yangulbaev's lawyer a resolution to bring the spouses to Chechnya as witnesses in a fraud case. In Grozny, Musayeva was first placed under administrative arrest on charges of petty hooliganism, and then sent to a pre-trial detention center for two months on charges of using violence against a government official (Part 2 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code). The woman has diabetes.
• After Musaeva's abduction, about 15 relatives of their family stopped communicating. Presumably, they could also have been kidnapped by Chechen security forces.
• Saydi Yangulbaev and his sons Ibragim and Abubakar were tortured in Chechnya in 2015, Ibragim spoke about this. He connects the persecution of his family with his activist activities and criticism of the Kadyrov regime.