On June 12, 20-year-old Chechen native Selima Ismailova was arrested at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport as she was preparing to leave the country, fleeing what she has described as years of violent abuse at the hands of her relatives. The next day, Moscow authorities sent Ismailova back to Chechnya against her will.
She has not been heard from since.
The Muslim-majority Chechnya region is controlled by Kremlin-installed strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, who has promoted a socially conservative form of Islam and has been accused of rampant human rights abuses including torture, abductions, and extrajudicial killings. Women in the region have long complained that the Kadyrov government turns a blind eye to so-called "honor" crimes and prevents victims from receiving assistance.
The Arrest
"Selima was accompanied by her lawyers, Narek Akopyan and Anastasia Tyunyayeva," said Sofia Rusova, an activist with the Center for the Defense of Domestic Violence Victims, a Russian legal-aid NGO. "At the airport they learned there was an arrest warrant, although initially the police at Vnukovo didn't know the details and were waiting for papers from Chechnya. After the lawyers made demands and a three-hour wait, the documents arrived."
According to the Chechen warrant, a relative of Ismailova's filed a complaint on April 3 alleging that Ismailova stole 85,000 rubles ($1,000) from her. The papers also alleged that Ismailova had ignored repeated summonses to appear before police since the complaint was filed, Rusova said. However, Ismailova was living in Chechnya at the time and said she had no idea an investigation had been opened.
"Experience has shown that vulnerable people from the North Caucasus often learn about dubious cases against them when they are trying to leave Russia," Rusova said.
On June 14, defense lawyer Tyunyayeva told the Russian-language media outlet Dozhd that Ismailova's lawyer in Chechnya reported that his client was not brought to police to give a statement after she returned to the region on June 13. He believes this means she was immediately handed over to her relatives, Tyunyayeva added.
'I Will Find You'
When Ismailova was 12 years old, she moved to Germany with her parents, her four brothers, and her sister. A person who knew the family there, and who asked that his identity be withheld for fear of repercussions, said the parents often fought among themselves and subjected the children to violence. At one point, Ismailova filed a complaint to the local child-protection agency, but she later withdrew it -- after being threatened by her parents, the person said.
After she turned 18, the age of majority in Germany, in the summer of 2021, Ismailova's parents sent her to live with her paternal grandmother in the Chechen town of Achkhoi-Martan. Ismailova told rights activists in Chechnya that she had been led to believe the move was only for the summer, but after she arrived she learned it was permanent. Her father allegedly beat her as he laid down the new rules.
RFE/RL was unable to contact any of Ismailova's relatives for comment for this story.
Later, her father regularly returned to Chechnya and beat and verbally abused her, Ismailova told activists. He allegedly threatened to put her "in a wheelchair" and even to kill her outright. And he claimed to have connections with local police who would make sure that no one ever found out about her death, the activists said she told them.
Ismailova handed over to rights activists audio messages that she said were from her father. The rights group SK SOS posted the text on Telegram on June 12.
"I will break your arms and legs," the man's voice says in Chechen in one of the messages. "You know I will.... This time I promise you, I will not forgive you. You can hide anywhere in Russia that you like -- I will find you. Whether you listen or not, you will do what I say under blows from the rod."
In another message, the man reminds Ismailova that she "is not in Germany anymore," warning that no one will protect her in Chechnya.
'Deathly Afraid'
Fearing her father's next visit to the region, Ismailova turned to rights activists in January. It was difficult for her to reach out because she speaks only Chechen and German.
"Communicating through online translators is a problem," said Svetlana Anokhina, founder of the Marem human rights group in the North Caucasus. "It can lead to misunderstandings and frighten the victim. But I was able to learn that Selima was deathly afraid of her father. Sometimes she wrote several times a day, asking that she be given shelter immediately. Other times, she seemed to be calmly waiting."
"I think the moments of panic were connected with the audio messages from her father or other threats from her relatives that he would be coming soon," Anokhina said.
Soon the Center for the Defense of Domestic Violence Victims was able to place her in a secret apartment and help her prepare the necessary documents to leave the country and file for asylum abroad. Anokhina said Ismailova refused to communicate with any Chechens for fear they would tip off her relatives.
Anokhina noted there have been numerous instances of women in similar situations being returned to their relatives in the North Caucasus, mentioning Elina Ukhmanova and Aminat Lorsanova. In those cases, rights activists had to help the victims escape more than once.
![“Anyone running away from their family in the [North] Caucasus...is never completely safe," according to Elina Ukhmanova, who says she has fled Daghestan after years of violence and abuse from her relatives.](https://gdb.rferl.org/034d0000-0aff-0242-58b9-08daf250c801_w100_r1.png)
"There have been many cases like that," she said. "Apparently the entire region is vigilantly on the lookout for such women.... It has become sort of a national sport. But there have been cases of women successfully getting out of that circle on the second or third try."
Although police across Russia have long handed over people like Ismailova to the Chechen authorities despite serious accusations of human rights abuses in the repressive region, the practice has become even more routine since Moscow's massive invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Since then, Russian law enforcement has ceased even making the appearance of considering the rights of victims, says Aleksandra Miroshnikova of SK SOS.
Oleg Orlov, co-chairman of the banned Memorial human rights group, agrees, saying Kadyrov's influence in Russian politics has grown noticeably since the invasion, which he has supported vocally and by recruiting troops.
Miroshnikova adds that it is very difficult for activists to follow up on the cases of people who are sent back to Chechnya. Often, information is only made available if there is a large public outcry that compels the authorities to demonstrate that the person is still alive, usually by releasing a video. In such videos, the victim -- apparently under duress -- appeals to activists to end their involvement in the matter.
In February, for instance, a gay Chechen man named Idris Arsamikov, who was sent back to Chechnya from Moscow and was missing for more than a day, released a video saying that he'd returned to Chechnya voluntarily, that he planned to go serve in the war in Ukraine, and that he wanted activists to leave him and his family alone.
SK SOS, which had been providing help to Arsamikov -- who was being forcibly "treated" for his homosexuality in a dubious "rehabilitation center" -- since 2018, has not heard from him since.
"Rights organizations are prepared to send lawyers to Chechnya," Miroshnikova said. "But after they are sent back to the region, clients are usually completely cut off from the outside world and, under duress, reject all assistance. Lawyers are not even allowed to speak with them."
