In December 2023, Team Against Torture lawyer Alexander Savin sent a petition to the Shali City Court of Chechnya to hold a medical commission for Zarema Musayeva. The woman has insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes and a number of chronic diseases. With such a state of health, according to the law, a person should not be kept in prison.

However, until now there has been no medical examination, which is delaying the consideration of the petition for Musaeva’s release. She is being held in a colony settlement.

Alexander Savin sent a number of requests to the court to clarify the situation. “My client and I want to understand why the examination has not been carried out for several months. Let me remind you that earlier the defense was presented with Musaeva’s own medical record, which indicated a disease that prevents the actual serving of a criminal sentence in a colony,” the lawyer noted.

In early March, the Pyatigorsk Court of Cassation commuted the sentence of Zarema Musaeva from 5 to 4 years and 9 months in prison.

Last year in Grozny, Musayeva was sentenced to five and a half years in a penal colony on charges of using violence against a government official. In September, the Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic reduced the sentence by six months. In December, the Shalinsky City Court of Chechnya refused to grant Musayeva parole.

Let us remind you that on January 20, 2022, police officers from Chechnya came to Nizhny Novgorod and took Zarema Musaeva away. After being taken to Grozny, the woman was accused of using violence against a police officer. She allegedly scratched his face.

Zarema Musayeva is the mother of Chechen activists Abubakar, Ibragim and Baysangur Yangulbaev. Human rights activists believe that she was kidnapped as a hostage and convicted of her sons’ opposition activities.