A Russian politician has threatened to “cut off the heads” of a Chechen anti-torture activist and his relatives.
Adam Delimkhanov, a member of the pro-Putin United Russia party, made the threat on Tuesday against the family of Abubakar Yangulbaev, who works as a lawyer for the Committee against Torture, a UN-linked human rights body.
Speaking in his native Chechen language, the Duma representative said in a video posted on Instagram: “We will pursue you until we cut off your heads and kill you.”
He added that the same “applies to those who translate this video into Russian”.
In response, Nikolai Arefyev, a senior member of the Russian assembly’s ethics committee, described the threat as “no joke”, according to the Interfax news agency.
“Such a person is a danger to society [and] needs to be controlled,” he said, referring to Mr Delimkhanov.
Mr Yangulbaev said it was “astonishing” to hear a public official use such inflammatory language against his family. He also expressed his doubts that Mr Delimkhanov’s words would be properly investigated.
The lawyer, who says he was tortured by the Chechen regime, has repeatedly spoken out against the misfortunes inflicted on his relatives. Many of them were abducted last year in a bid to silence him, he told The Daily Beast in December.
He was himself detained in late December, before being released.
A month later, his mother, Zarema Musaeva was reportedly beaten and seized in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod, before being taken back to an unknown location. Amnesty International is among the human rights organisations to have called for her immediate release.
Like Mr Delimkhanov, the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has also threatened the Yangulbaev family, saying last month that they face “jail or burial”. He also claimed “shielding them means supporting terrorists”.
When asked about Mr Kadyrov’s language, the Kremlin downplayed its significance by labelling it a “personal opinion”.
