The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) asked the Russian authorities about the 19-year-old moderator of the Telegram channel 1ADAT, Salman Tapsurkaev, who stated that he was fighting the “Kadyrov’s dictatorship” and was forced to sit on a bottle under threat of torture. This was reported by the “Committee against Torture”.
The ECHR, in particular, asks whether Tepsurkayev was abducted, whether he was tortured, whether an investigation is being carried out in connection with a video that appeared on the network, where the victim is self-torturing, and whether the Russian authorities are aware of Tepsurkaev's real whereabouts. It is noted that human rights defenders and government officials must send responses to the ECHR by September 16 by 17:00.
Olga Sadovskaya, head of the international legal department of the Committee Against Torture, said that the organization would provide evidence that Tepsurkaev was under state control after the abduction and that his location is currently unknown.
Earlier, the former emissary and field commander of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (CRI) Akhmed Zakayev said that he had evidence of the involvement of the Chechen authorities in the torture of Tepsurkaev. He noted that the results of the investigation will be submitted to the Council of Europe, the ECHR and the UN Commissioner for Human Rights.
The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, also spoke about the incident. He stated that the video showing the torture of Tepsurkaev should not have been published in the public domain, because “it is indecent.” He also noted that the victim's father had not seen his son for two years, and he left to work as a waiter somewhere.
The video, which captures Tepsurkaev's apologies and torture, appeared online in early September. On footage, he says that he is punishing himself for his activities and passing the baton to the 1ADAT administrators. Later, Novaya Gazeta reported that there was evidence that Tepsurkayev had been abducted by residents of the republic. According to her, he was at the Terek SOBR base in Grozny.
