Watchdog

NUR-SULTAN -- Activists in Kazakhstan are demanding answers after a video surfaced that appears to show the body of Dulat Aghadil, who mysteriously died in police custody this week, with multiple bruises and other injuries.

The video began circulating on the Internet late on February 27, after Aghadil was buried in his native village of Talapker, near Nur-Sultan, the capital. The video shows Aghadil's body after it was delivered to his relatives.

Aghadil, who was detained late on February 24, died hours later in custody. Authorities have said he was intoxicated and died of "heart failure with no traces of violence having been found on his body."

Aghadil's friends and rights defenders, however, have questioned the explanation, saying he did not drink due to a medical condition and that he had no history of heart issues.

In what will only add to their suspicions, the graphic video shows what appear to be wounds on Aghadil's hands and feet and discolored areas scattered across his shoulders, back, upper arms, and other areas of his body.

Numerous scratches and small holes can be seen on many parts of the body.

Aghadil's relatives have refused to comment on the video.

A medical expert who was present during the autopsy, Ruslan Satybaldiev, refused to comment, telling RFE/RL that he signed a nondisclosure agreement with the authorities as an investigation is under way.

After the video was released, Bakhytzhan Toreghozhina, the head of the Almaty-based human rights foundation Ar.Rukh.Khaq (Dignity, Spirit, Truth), demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Erlan Turghymbaev and the immediate investigation and interrogation of the officers involved in Aghadil's detainment.

Ivar Dale of the Helsinki Committee in Norway said the evidence warrants an immediate, independent autopsy while calling out President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev for failing to comment on Aghadil's death.

"Authorities previously claimed, absurdly, that he died from being drunk. Does President @TokayevKZ have an opinion on the matter?" he said in a tweet.

Though Toqaev has yet to comment, Eldos Kilymzhanov, the deputy prosecutor of Nur-Sultan, told reporters on February 28 that the video of Aghadil's body was shot and distributed online without the consent of Aghadil’s relatives, adding that his mother has filed an official complaint with city prosecutors asking to "undertake measures against individuals, who shot the video and distributed it without the family's consent."

Kilymzhanov reiterated the authorities' previous statement, saying that Aghadil died of heart failure and said that what looked like bruises on Aghadil's body were the result of "postmortem lividity."

Arman Khanbekov, who was introduced by Kilymzhanov as a forensics expert for the city of Nur-Sultan, told the briefing that he was present during Aghadil's autopsy and reiterated Kilymzhanov's statement that postmortem lividity, or cadaveric spots, appear in dead bodies as blood pools in some areas depending on the body's position after death.

Kilymzhanov also said that Aghadil's brother and the family's lawyer were present at the autopsy and had no objections to the procedure or to the official version of the cause of death.

"We call on citizens to stay away from expedited conclusions and not to distribute false information," Kilymzhanov said.

Aghadil, a 43-year-old father of six, was widely known for his civil rights activities. He was sentenced to several days in jail several times for taking part in unsanctioned rallies and resisting arrest. Since August 2019, he had spent at least 60 days in jail.

In November, Aghadil made headlines after he escaped from jail just one day before his expected release. He later explained that he made the move "to protest my illegal arrest."

He was buried on February 27.

Media freedom watchdogs say they are alarmed over the reported assault of a well-known Chechen blogger in an unidentified European country where he lives in hiding.

An assailant broke into Tumso Abdurakhmanov’s apartment on February 26 while he was asleep and beat him with a hammer, according to the Sweden-based human rights group Vayfond.

Abdurakhmanov, who eventually managed to overpower the attacker, was said to be hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

Both Vayfond and the blogger’s brother called the assault an assassination attempt -- the latest attack in Europe on critics of the leadership in Russia's North Caucasus region.

“Alarmed by the reported attempt to assassinate” Abdurakhmanov, the representative on freedom of the media for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Harlem Desir, tweeted on February 27, noting that the attack came after last month’s suspected murder of another Chechen blogger in France.

The 32-year-old Abdurakhmanov has lived in self-imposed exile since fleeing Chechnya in 2015 amid fears for his safety after becoming known for his criticism of the Kremlin-backed authorities in his native region. He has twice filed for asylum in Poland and has been turned down once already, despite strong support from human rights activists such as Amnesty International, which has warned he is “at a very real risk of torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment” if returned to Russia.

Gulnoza Said, Europe and Central Asia program coordinator at the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said the attack against Abdurakhmanov “is alarming and must be thoroughly investigated.”

“Bringing the perpetrators of this attack to justice is crucial for ensuring the safety of Chechen dissidents living in Europe,” she said.

The location of the attack has not been disclosed, but Abdurakhmanov posted a video on WhatsApp in which, after overpowering the purported attacker he interrogates him.

The alleged assailant says he is from Moscow and that he had been sent by someone named "Abdurakhman from Grozny," the Chechen capital, in order "to frighten" the blogger.

“They have my mother,” he adds.

Meanwhile, sources in Chechnya told RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service that on February 26 local police in the villages of Stanitsa Naurskaya and Stanitsa Shelkovskaya detained at least nine young men who had "liked" online videos posted by Abdurakhmanov.

Relatives of the allegedly detained men refused to comment. Naursky district police officials denied that they detained anyone on that day, while a spokeswoman for the Shelkovsky district police hung up the phone after an RFE/RL correspondent introduced himself.

Rights groups say Kremlin-backed Ramzan Kadyrov, who has ruled the volatile region since 2007, uses repressive measures and has created a climate of impunity for security forces in the region. They claim Kadyrov is ultimately responsible for the violence and intimidation of political opponents by Chechen authorities, including kidnappings, forced disappearances, torture, and extra-judicial killings.

Chechen authorities have threatened, intimidated, and arrested journalists for their work, according to the CPJ.

In late January, the body of Imran Aliyev, another Chechen blogger known for his criticism of Kadyrov, was found in a hotel room in the northern French city of Lille, with stab wounds, according to French media.

The CPJ said it has yet to be able to determine whether Aliyev's death was tied to his reporting.