Press release, 15.12.2014

YABLOKO Federal Council condemned the current actions of Ramzan Kadyrov, President of Chechnya, aimed against the Committe against tortures and demanded to abolish the introduced principle of collective family responsibility for crimes.

“We demand from the federal authorities to take the persecution of citizens and human rights defenders in Chechnya under personal control and protect them”, runs in the YABLOKO statement.

The office of the Committee Against Tortures and its documents were burnt down in Gronzny, the capital of Chechnya, on December 13. Two staff members Sergei Babinets and Dmitry Dmitriyev, who arrived at the site of the fire, were detained and their lawyer wasn’t allowed to talk to them. The activists were released only after Moscow interfered.

Prior to the developments, Igor Kalyapin, head of the Committee Against Tortures, had appealed to the Public Prosecutor General and the Investigative Committee demanding to examine the compliance of the principle of collective responsibility of militants’ families and destruction of their houses introduced by head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov with Russia’s laws. After this letter Kalyapin began receiving threats from Ramzan Kadyrov.

“Such a way of doing away with people and organisations resisting head of the Chechnya has all the marks of terror against the citizens”, runs in the statement.

The Federal Council considers that an unconstitutional system which threatens all the legal system of the Russian Federation is being formed in Chechnya.

YABLOKO demands from Yuri Chayaka, Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, to conduct verification of the match between the actions of head of Chechnya and the Constitution and the law.