On April 18, the Supreme Court of Chechnya returned to the first instance the refusal decision on the application of actor Timur Debishev, who demands that a criminal case be opened regarding the torture used against him.
Debishev’s interests are represented by lawyers from the “Team Against Torture”, who consistently go through all investigative and judicial authorities, trying to achieve justice for their applicant.
Actor of the State Russian Drama Theater named after. Lermontov Timur Debishev contacted them in November 2018. He said that at the Leninsky District Department of Internal Affairs of Grozny, officers tortured him with electric shocks and beat him, forcing him to confess to drug trafficking.
“They jumped on top of me while I was lying on the floor. There were four of them. When the police got tired, they started beating me with a plastic pipe. Then they left me overnight in the garage at the police department, and released me in the morning,” Debishev told human rights activists.
At the hospital, the man was diagnosed with multiple hematomas throughout his body. According to the CPT, the investigator issued the first decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case for torture in November 2019. In total, there were 13 such decisions over three years. In March, lawyers appealed another refusal in the Staropromyslovsky District Court. The judge, without going into details and without studying the case materials, simply refused Debishev.
But in the Supreme Court of Chechnya, where Debishev’s representatives appealed, they noticed this negligence and returned the application for reconsideration to the same court with a different composition.
“As can be seen from the judicial act, the court in its decision refers to the examined materials of the inspection on the use of physical violence against Debishev, however, the specified procedural documents of the rejected material, confirming the validity of the court’s conclusions, were not examined at the court hearing. Under the above circumstances, the appellate court cannot recognize the appealed decision as legal and justified and finds it subject to cancellation with the direction of the materials for a new judicial review, during which all the circumstances of the case should be carefully examined, taking into account the arguments of the appeal presentation and this decision, and a legal and justified judicial decision should be issued decision,” says the appeal ruling.
In September last year, the “Team Against Torture” published a report “The Arithmetic of Torture: North Caucasus Federal District”, which states that in 19 years of their work in the North Caucasus they have never been able to bring security forces to justice under the criminal article of abuse of power . At the same time, they were able to obtain compensation for harm through the European Court for several victims of police violence. In some cases, they had to appeal investigators’ refusals 20 times.
The paper version of the report was sent to the heads of regions, parliaments, and heads of law enforcement agencies. The report, sent to the head of the Chechen parliament Magomed Daudov, came back with an anonymous note: “Your team is a perverted community of figures who sold their souls to Satan in the person of the State Department for 30 pieces of silver! For this reason, go to hell, you corrupt skins!!!”
The information and analytical note on the results of the activities of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs for 2022 states: “In pursuance of the instructions of the head of the Chechen Republic, Hero of Russia Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov, control in the field of combating drug trafficking was strengthened. As part of the implementation of the assigned tasks, it was possible to achieve a reduction in drug-related crimes by 15.3%.”

Those abducted in Alkhan-Kala were found in the pre-trial detention center of Grozny.

On April 24, the Memorial Center reported on the fate of residents of the Chechen village of Alkhan-Kala, abducted by security forces in January. According to human rights activists, they are in a pre-trial detention center in Grozny, they are accused of organizing an illegal armed group or participating in it (Article 208 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
As New Dosh wrote in the last issue, on January 8, the Chechen opposition telegram channels 1ADAT and NIYSO reported mass abductions by security forces in the village of Alkhan-Kala, located 15 kilometers from Grozny. According to the chairman of the United Force movement, Dzhambulat Suleymanov, Kadyrov’s supporters could consider the villagers an “anti-government cell” because of their interest in an “unreliable” Internet resource.
The NIYSO channel published the names of the 14 abducted. They are all relatives and neighbors. These are Said-Magomed Ayubov, Turpal Batsaraev, Magomed Vatsiev, Ramzan Vatsiev, Samad Gerikhanov, Muslim Gerikhanov, Adlan Isaev, Usman Musaev, Usman Khatuev, Akhyad Khatuev, Bekhan Khatuev, Khamzat Solsaev, Khalim Solsaev and Adam Solsaev. It is known about the latter that he is the director of rural secondary school No. 3.
Later, Memorial, citing its own source, reported that Kadyrov’s men kidnapped and took away 25 people, mostly young people, in an unknown direction.
The publication "Kavkaz.Realii" reported that the abducted people are being held in one of the illegal prisons, and two of them - brothers Khamzat and Lecha Solsayev - are being brutally tortured. “They are not officially charged with anything. But we learned that they were tortured with extreme cruelty. The security forces have a particular grudge against them because of their critical attitude towards the authorities. We are not even sure that the brothers are alive now,” their relative said, without specifying the sources of information.
On March 9, the father of Khamzat and Lecha Solsayev died in Chechnya after a stroke that occurred due to nervousness.
According to the Memorial Center, relatives of the abducted people refused to interact with human rights activists because they were afraid of aggravating the situation. Volunteers of the center interviewed residents of the village of Alkhan-Kala on condition of anonymity, and they said that criminal cases had been opened against all detainees under the article on illegal armed groups. It is unknown when exactly the abducted people were “legalized” and transferred to the status of suspects and accused.