14:09, 15 January 2021

Chechen blogger Tumso compares himself with Navalny

Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, Alexei Navalny (from left to right). Collage by the "Caucasian Knot". Photos: REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina, press service of the HRC "Memorial"; https://memohrc.org/, screenshot: «ABU-SADDAM SHISHANI» YouTube channel

Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a blogger from Chechnya, has called on the Swedish authorities to react to the mild, in his opinion, sentence to the figurants in the assassination attempt on him in the same way as European countries reacted to the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili and the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. The coordinator of the assassination attempt on Tumso is associated with Ramzan Kadyrov's inner circle, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" reports.

On January 11, a court in Sweden found Russian citizens Ruslan Mamaev and Elmira Shapiaeva as participants in the attack on Abdurakhmanov and sentenced them to ten and eight years in prison, respectively.

"While in Europe they punish criminals in such a mild manner, those who wish to commit such crimes will not decrease," Mr Abdurakhmanov has stated.

He has noted that even after the conviction of the attackers, he doesn't feel safe. "I will not feel safe as long as this regime exists in Chechnya," the blogger has added.

He has compared his case with the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a native of the Pankisi Gorge, committed in Berlin, the "Deutsche Welle" reports.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 14, 2021 at 07:06 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.