Elena Patyaeva—a friend of Seda Suleymanova, who disappeared three years ago after being forcibly returned from St. Petersburg to Chechnya—was detained in Grozny. On August 23, Patyaeva stood by the monument to journalists who died for freedom of speech, holding a sign that read: "I demand an investigation into the murder of Seda Suleymanova." This was reported by the human rights project "Slovo Zashchite" (Word for the Defense).
The Malgobek City Court softened the preventive measure for Ingushetia resident Leila Gatagazheva. After six and a half years in pre-trial detention, she was placed under house arrest, the Memorial Human Rights Center reported.
The 21-year-old mother of two children is accused of aiding ISIS (an organization banned in the Russian Federation) for almost seven years. At the same time, she is being held accountable for the same acts for which she served a sentence of 5 years in prison in Iraq. By the time she was extradited to the Russian Federation, the girl had overstayed her sentence by almost a year.
The criminal case is based on the testimony of a single classified witness. The defense cannot review the materials while the investigation is ongoing. Law enforcement agencies also wanted to force Leila to cooperate using psychological pressure and threats, noted her lawyer Ramina Labazanova.