French authorities threaten to deport a Chechen refugee

Chechen refugee Zelimkhan O. may be deported to his homeland after being released from a French prison, human rights defenders report. Zelimkhan is serving a sentence for participating in the hostilities in Syria, although he did not participate in the activities of any of the groupings that are recognized by the UN as terrorist, his friends say.

The French authorities expelled Chechen natives to Russia at any slightest suspicion, and the mass deportation stopped only with the outbreak of the hostilities in Ukraine, stated Pascal Chaudot, the head of the “Chechen Committee” in France, in connection with the death of Daud Muradov, who was deported to Russia from France on February 8, 2022.

France intends to deport 44-year-old Zelimkhan O., who may be threatened with torture and extrajudicial execution in his homeland, the “Kavkaz.Realii”* reports.

The defence claims that Zelimkhan was convicted unfairly, since the organization in which he was a member was not recognized as a terrorist organization by the UN, the Chechen human rights association “Vayfond” reported in its Telegram channel.

Mansur Ismailov, a 39-year-old native of Chechnya, lived in France, but on May 11, 2021, he was detained and deported. Law enforcers did not let him leave a Moscow airport and were forcing him to fly to Chechnya, the human rights defenders reported. On May 13, 2021, border guards allowed Mansur Ismailov to leave the airport, after which he received emergency medical care. The native of Chechnya stays in Moscow, but without documents he cannot receive medical care, the human rights defenders reported.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the list of foreign agents.