Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.[KavkazUzel] A statement was submitted to the National Center for the Prevention of Torture of Kyrgyzstan about torture in the pre-trial detention center of a native of Chechnya, Mansur Movlaev. The court in Bishkek did not specify where it decided to deport Movlaev, who fears persecution by the Chechen authorities, his lawyer said.
As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, on October 4, a court in Bishkek sentenced a native of Chechnya, Mansur Movlaev, to six months in prison and subsequent deportation from Kyrgyzstan for illegally crossing the border. Movlaev, who fears persecution by the Chechen authorities, asked in court to be sentenced to the maximum term, the lawyer said.
In August, security forces detained Mansur Movlaev in the Issyk-Kul region of Kyrgyzstan, who was put on the wanted list in Russia in the case of financing extremist activities. On September 15, Movlaev requested asylum in Kyrgyzstan, and on September 30, the case of Movlaev illegally crossing the border came to court. Recently, activists from Russia have often been detained in Kyrgyzstan under various pretexts, while the country’s authorities very rarely grant refugee status, human rights activists have pointed out.
Today, a statement about violence against Mansur Movlaev was sent to the National Center for the Prevention of Torture, Movlaev's lawyer Bakyt Avtandil told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
According to him, this center is engaged in preventive visits to places of detention; its representatives must visit Movlaev, take his statement and examine him.
The use of torture was expressed in the beating of the activist; the security forces did not demand anything specific, the lawyer explained. “Our security forces do not have any legal claims of their own, except that they can comply with the court’s decision on expulsion if they fail to appeal,” he said.
At the same time, according to the lawyer, in the case materials there are no specific justifications on the part of the Russian security forces for the extradition of Movlaev. "There is no reference to the verdict or to any investigation. There is no orientation. All data was literally erased from the case materials. Everything that was previously written about Movlaev is not in the case materials. This was done in order to show the Kyrgyz justice that Movlaev is not being persecuted in Russia, and he is not facing torture,” Avtandil said.
According to the lawyer, the Kyrgyz security forces “need him to simply be expelled.” “And the court’s decision is that Movlaev should be expelled for illegally crossing the state border. Formally, his case was considered that way. There are no other demands or charges,” he indicated.
Although the decision on deportation does not imply mandatory deportation specifically to Russia, the court has instructed the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) to carry it out. “The court did not clearly indicate where they would be deported, but entrusted the deportation procedure to the employees of the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan. And they, in turn, can take Movlaev on a direct flight wherever they ask,” the lawyer said. What criticism of the Chechen authorities was expressed by Movlaev was not voiced either at the trial or by Mansur Movlaev himself, he added.
Mansur Movlaev reported torture on October 31 at a meeting of the Bishkek City Court, where it was planned to consider his appeal. “Dear judge, I am being tortured in a pre-trial detention center. I am being forced to abandon the trial,” Radio Azattyk quoted Movlaev on its website that same day.
However, the native of Chechnya was unable to speak to the end; the chairman of the judicial panel interrupted him. He stated that the defendant’s appeal had not yet been received by the court, and postponed the hearing to November 16, the newspaper writes.
In August, the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan stated that Mansur Movlaev was detained as part of counter-terrorism activities as “an adherent of radical ideology, who, at the direction of emissaries of international terrorist organizations in Syria, was part of a sleeper cell from among previously convicted followers of the terrorist underground.” According to the intelligence service, Movlaev is a citizen of Russia, born in 1995, has been on the international wanted list since August 2022, and in January 2023 illegally crossed the state border of Kyrgyzstan and used a fake passport of a Russian citizen in the country, the publication says.
Let us recall that earlier sources reported that in 2020 Movlaev was sentenced in Russia to three years in prison, in 2022 he was released on parole, but was detained by security forces in Chechnya and held in an illegal prison . He escaped from there and was able to illegally reach Kyrgyzstan after a case of financing extremism was fabricated against him.