Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] The alleged killer of Imam Gakaev looks like an unhealthy person who took a far-fetched motive as a guide to action, but with a similar motive of fighting against sorcerers,
he appealed to the authorities of Chechnya and sought their support. So the crime is connected with the general atmosphere of cruelty that reigns in Chechnya, according to Caucasian experts and human rights activists interviewed by the Caucasian Knot.
As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, on January 14 it became known about the murder of Abdurakhim Gakaev, a resident of the village of Voskresenovskoye, Shelkovsky district, in front of his child. A number of sources reported that he was the mullah of the village. On January 15, a 30-year-old suspect in the murder of Gakaev was detained. The Telegram channel in opposition to the authorities of Chechnya reported that several months before the attack, the suspect recorded a video message in which he declared his fight against witches, asking that this message be brought to the head of the republic, from whom he tried to find understanding and protection. After publishing the video from the funeral, social network users sympathized with the family of the deceased and called for the killer to be punished.
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According to sources, the suspect in the murder of Gakaev 10 years ago turned to a healer in Dagestan who used methods of alternative medicine. Five years ago, he began looking for treatment for witchcraft and became a “patient” of a man, whom he killed, because he decided that he was also a sorcerer.
The President of the Assembly of the Peoples of the Caucasus, Ruslan Kutaev, believes that the alleged killer is an unhealthy person, and the campaign against witches was not of decisive importance for him. "In his addresses, he indulges in narcissism. From everything he said, it is impossible to understand why he calls the imam a sorcerer. What did this imam do that makes him complain. He could not formulate this. There are different healers. But even the authorities do not allowed herself physical reprisals against those who were declared sorcerers. Basically, they were forbidden to engage in their “trade”, and they got off with administrative punishment,” he said.
According to Kutaev, the motive for the crime could have been the dissatisfaction of the “consumer” with the services provided. “Apparently, he, as a buyer, received some kind of “product” from the imam, but this product did not suit him. We don’t know exactly what he expected - either some kind of medicine, or something else. He says that he wanted “to improve fate.” But how can someone do this if a person is not even able to improve his own fate,” Kutaev explained.
According to him, what happened causes general outrage and has no justification in society. “Firstly, he had no right to kill. There was no basis for the blood feud that he wanted to declare. And, secondly, especially, to commit the vile murder of a person in the presence of his child. This is generally against all rules. This man is sick, but this does not justify him. He thought of something for himself and killed an innocent person," Kutaev said.
He believes that one should not expect any pressure on “Islamic healers.” “They, like doctors, can treat more or less successfully. If we are not satisfied with the doctor, we don’t go to kill him. We can turn to someone else or wait for the results of the treatment. It’s the same here,” Kutaev said.
The funeral of the murdered imam of the mosque, Abdurakhim Gakaev, was attended by a large crowd of people; he was described as a devout and deeply religious person, a reader of the "Caucasian Knot" wrote today. “Janaza-namaz (funeral prayer) for the deceased was personally performed by the Chairman of the Council of Alims of Chechnya, Khozh-Akhmed Kadyrov, who is the head of Chechnya’s cousin. Khozh-Akhmed Kadyrov’s participation in Gakaev’s funeral suggests that he was not a simple imam of a mosque in the republic ( there are hundreds of them in the republic), but occupied a certain position in Kadyrov’s circle,” he noted in a commentary.
He doubts the possibility of preventing crimes of this kind of persons. “How many sick people have become bloggers, what utter nonsense they talk! Is it possible to pay attention to everyone?” - Kutaev complained.
Chechen human rights activist Oyub Titiev did not recall cases of such attacks on healers or representatives of “Islamic medicine” by ordinary citizens. “In general, if this person began to seek certain means from people who, relatively speaking, associate with jinn, he himself acted contrary to the norms of Islam. And not getting what he wanted, he committed an even greater sin - killing a person,” he noted.
The human rights activist believes that this case is unlikely to increase the risk for traditional healers due to ineffective treatment. “Still, “Islamic medicine” is not what is called witchcraft. The latter has nothing to do with Islam. But certain methods of treatment with drugs, reading the Koran, etc. are permitted, and this is completely different,” he said Titiev.
As for the lack of reaction to the suspect’s video, published earlier on social networks, it can be explained by the lack of attention to all kinds of “unhealthy” people speaking on social networks, Titiev believes. “They probably didn’t take him seriously. You never know how many people make strange statements. Of course, if he was noticed, it was necessary to look for this person and stop him,” Titiev noted.
In Chechnya, a campaign to persecute people who declared themselves healers, psychics, magicians and sorcerers was announced by the head of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, in 2013. Dozens of people were detained, some went missing. Then the campaign began to decline. In 2019, the persecution of residents for occultism intensified again. The state television channel "Grozny" regularly released reports in which local residents repented of practicing witchcraft, and the head of the Center for Islamic Medicine, Adam Elzhurkaev, reprimanded them for witchcraft, but in 2022-2023 such videos began to appear less frequently on the television company's air.
Chairman of the Civic Assistance Committee Svetlana Gannushkina, meanwhile, believes that the general atmosphere of reprisals could have influenced the actions of this mentally ill person.
“A sick person could be influenced by the general atmosphere - cruelty, reprisals, calls for how “the ancestors acted.” There was a fight against witches. Moreover, it was not witches who were recognized as witches, but women who treated, for example, with herbs. Although such a story with a sick person could have happened anywhere, at any time,” she said.
There is no prevention of people’s mental health in society, so this person’s statements were not paid attention to. “If he had previously made such statements, in fact, threats of murder, attention should have been paid to this. If the authorities had paid attention to this side of the life of their people, the crime could have been prevented,” Gannushkina pointed out.
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