Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Relatives of residents of Chechnya suspected of extremism must be held accountable along with them as accomplices, said the head of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, as quoted by the Chechen media. Before this, the head of the republic threatened the relatives of people suspected of extremism on the eve of the New Year.
As the Caucasian Knot reported, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, at a meeting with Chechen security forces on December 30, 2023, stated that relatives of people suspected of extremism are responsible for their actions. The Chechen authorities will get rid of critics wherever they are, he noted.
Relatives of people suspected of extremism must be held accountable for their actions, Ramzan Kadyrov said during a meeting with security forces and government officials of the republic. “Why can’t we punish terrorists and criminals in our republic? If someone in the family has committed a crime, then the relatives of the perpetrator: father, brother or son will also bear responsibility for this as accomplices,” IA quoted him as saying on January 7. “Grozny Inform" on its Instagram page*.
Kadyrov also reproached human rights activists and Ichkerians who speak out in defense of Islam, but do not pay due attention to the conflict between Israel and Palestine. “Why are all human rights activists silent? The Ichkerians, who proclaim themselves defenders of Islam, have also quieted down. They would compare an explosion of a bomb on the territory of the Chechen Republic to a nuclear war,” Kadyrov said.
Let us recall that human rights activists previously interviewed by the Caucasian Knot pointed to increased persecution of critics of the Chechen authorities. At the same time, they noted that the Chechen authorities continuously persecute their critics and, in an attempt to completely suppress them, use methods such as pressure on relatives. At the same time, the recent case when security forces threatened the relatives of two people with violence, demanding that they stop criticism of the Chechen authorities, is not a new campaign to persecute opponents, but an intensification of the previous one.
It should be noted that relatives of critics of Ramzan Kadyrov have repeatedly been subjected to pressure from the authorities. Thus, in December 2021, Kadyrov’s critics announced mass abductions of their relatives in Chechnya and Astrakhan.
Why the new wave of mass kidnappings in Chechnya is part of the systemic persecution of people whom the authorities of the republic declared as their opponents is described in the Caucasian Knot report “ Relatives as hostages: a new wave of kidnappings in Chechnya.”
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