A Russian lawmaker from the North Caucasus region of Chechnya has vowed to "cut off the heads" of all members of the family of Abubakar Yangulbayev, a former lawyer for the Committee Against Torture group, whose mother Zarema Musayeva was forcibly taken from her apartment in the city of Nizhny Novgorod and transferred to Chechnya last month.
Adam Delimkhanov made the statement threatening Yangulbayev's family during a live stream event he held on Instagram on February 1.
"You should know that we will be pursuing you day and night, without caring about our lives and property, until we cut off your heads, until we kill you all. We really are in a blood feud with you. And this is also related to those who will translate this message into Russian," Delimkhanov said according to a translation from the Chechen language by the 1ADAT Telegram channel.
After Zarema Musayeva, also known as Zarema Yangulbayeva, was forcibly taken from her apartment in Nizhny Novgorod on January 20, her husband, a retired federal judge Saidi Yangulbayev, and their daughter fled Russia.
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Amnesty International has described Yangulbayeva's detention as a "kidnapping" and has urged Russian federal authorities to act on the "lawlessness" that has "spilled out" of Chechnya.
Russian and international human rights groups have for years accused Kadyrov of overseeing grave human rights abuses including abductions, torture, extrajudicial killings, and the persecution of the LGBT community.
In an Instagram video statement on February 1, the Kremlin-backed authoritarian leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, called on other countries to "kick out" members of the Yangulbayev family or deny them entry. In the video, he called the family members "thugs" and "terrorists."
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Kadyrov also reiterated his previous statements calling on Russian federal authorities to launch probes against a founder of the Committee Against Torture human rights group, Igor Kalyapin, Novaya Gazeta journalist Yelena Milashina, who often writes about rights abuses in Chechnya, and the Dozhd television channel. Kadyrov called them "terrorists" as well.
Earlier in January, Kadyrov said Yangulbayeva faces a "real prison sentence for attacking a law enforcement officer" and that her entire family could find themselves "either in jail or under the ground."
Rights activists at the Committee Against Torture have said the extreme pressure on Yangulbayev's family is linked to the activities of the group's former lawyer Abubakar Yangulbayev. who had officially urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene into his family's ongoing ordeal and asked him to fire Kadyrov.
On February 1, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said "the president has no plans" to interfere in the situation.
"There is no need for Kremlin to follow this case as law enforcement structures are carrying out their duties and are doing it very well," Peskov said.
On January 31, the Chechen Interior Ministry said Abubakar Yangulbayev's brother, Ibragim, had been added to the federal wanted list on a charge of public calls for terrorism.
Kremlin critics say Putin has turned a blind eye to the abuses and violations carried out by Kadyrov because he relies on the former rebel commander to control separatist sentiment and violence in Chechnya.
Chechnya went through two devastating post-Soviet wars and an Islamist insurgency that spread to other mostly Muslim regions in the North Caucasus.