A court in Grozny declared illegal the investigator’s decision to refuse to provide case materials to the relatives of Movsar Umarov, a native of Chechnya who was kidnapped in 2020 and disappeared without a trace.

Previously, the court recognized the investigator’s refusal as legal. A complaint was filed against this decision to the Supreme Court of Chechnya, which decided to reconsider the case.

Let us recall that in July 2020, a restaurant employee in Grozny, Movsar Umarov, was detained by security forces and taken away in an unknown direction. Subsequently, over the phone, he told his family that he was interrogated in connection with watching videos of opposition blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov. After some time, Umarov disappeared, and his relatives were informed that he had escaped during the investigation. The family believes he was murdered.

Four years after the disappearance, there is no suspect. The criminal case did not reach the court. The investigation refuses to look for those involved in the disappearance of the man, the “Team Against Torture” previously stated.

At the end of 2023, the European Court ordered the Russian authorities to pay compensation to the relatives of Movsar Umarov. The ECHR found violations of several articles of the Human Rights Convention: there had been forced abduction, unlawful detention, ill-treatment of his brother, inadequate investigation and psychological suffering of loved ones.