Zarema Musayeva's sentence in her second criminal case was reduced by two months

Following a ruling by the Supreme Court of the Republic to review the case, the Shali City Court of Chechnya reduced the prison sentence of Zarema Musayeva, the mother of opposition activists, from four years to three years and 10 months. In her final statement, as in all previous hearings, she denied guilt in attacking an FSIN officer, the Team Against Torture reported.

"I committed no crime; I am the victim here. My conscience is clear on this Holy Month," she said.

She had previously requested a postponement of the hearing due to her poor health, but her request was denied.

Zarema Musayeva, the wife of a former judge and the mother of Chechen opposition activists critical of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and his entourage, was detained in Nizhny Novgorod in January 2022 and transferred to Chechnya. There, she was charged with fraud and assaulting a police officer, allegedly scratching his face while being transported.

In July 2023, a court in Grozny sentenced her to five years in prison, but in March 2024, a cassation court reduced her sentence to four years and nine months. Musayeva was recognized as a political prisoner.

In March 2025, just before her release, a new case was opened against Zarema Musayeva. She was sentenced to four years in a penal colony for disrupting the functioning of a correctional facility. According to investigators, she attacked a guard during transport to the hospital, leaving scratches on his neck and damaging his shoulder strap. However, the FSIN officers' accounts differed: one claimed to have witnessed the attack, while the other did not.

At the end of 2025, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov admitted that Musayeva was "taken" to Chechnya because members of her family "worked on social media."

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