The “Team Against Torture” appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) with a request to find the Russian authorities responsible for the murder of Chechen Salman Tepsurkaev and the ineffective investigation into his death. In addition, human rights activists consider it important to take into account the consequences of what happened and regard it as cruel treatment that led to psychological suffering for the relatives of the deceased.

Earlier, the Supreme Court of Chechnya recognized as legal the refusal to initiate a criminal case for the murder of the kidnapped chat moderator of the 1ADAT telegram channel Salman Tepsurkaev. His whereabouts and fate have been unknown since 2020. Human rights activists are confident that the young man was killed by security forces.

The Investigative Committee for Chechnya still does not consider Tepsurkaev dead, and the criminal case is being investigated under the article of kidnapping. In addition, the court in Grozny at least three times refused to satisfy the complaint to recognize Tepsurkaev’s wife as the victim (they have a religious marriage).

Let us recall that on September 7, 2020, a video of Salman Tepsurkaev’s self-torture appeared on social networks. He was a chat moderator for the 1ADAT telegram channel, where they publish critical information about what is happening in Chechnya. According to human rights activists, the young man was kidnapped from a hotel in Gelendzhik, taken to Grozny, and then forced to sit on a bottle naked in front of the camera.

Novaya Gazeta wrote that he was kept on the territory of the police patrol regiment named after A. Kadyrov in Grozny. Team Against Torture lawyer Olga Sadovskaya reported that the young man was killed.

The ECHR recognized that Russia did not conduct an effective investigation into the kidnapping of Salman and bears responsibility for this.