Zarema Musaeva

A resident of Chechnya, wife of a retired judge of the republic's Supreme Court, and mother of activists Ibragim Iangulbaev and Abubakar Iangulbaev, who criticise the republic's head Ramzan Kadyrov. In January 2022, Musaeva was forcibly taken from Nizhny Novgorod to Chechnya, allegedly for questioning in a fraud case. There, the woman was sentenced to 15 days of arrest under the article on petty hooliganism (part 1 of article 20.1 of the Administrative Code), and was later charged with large-scale fraud (part 3 of article 159 of the Criminal Code) and violence against a police officer (part 2 of article 318 of the Criminal Code).

As the Committee Against Torture wrote, the investigation claims that Musaeva, together with her "accomplice", implemented a fraudulent scheme related to consumer loans in 2017, and after being taken to Grozny for interrogation, scratched a policeman's cheek.

In February 2022, a court in Grozny placed her in a pre-trial detention centre, where she remains to this day. Musaeva denies her guilt.

The fraud case is based on the testimony of another defendant, who was released from the pre-trial detention centre after making a deal with the investigation. Some of the witnesses who claimed that Musaeva attacked the policeman were not eyewitnesses and allegedly learnt about the incident from their colleagues. The investigation did not provide the video recordings from the department; moreover, the department's employees claimed that surveillance camera footage was not stored anywhere, whereas, according to the information on the state procurement website, the recordings should have been stored for at least 14 days.

According to the investigation, with her fingers, Musaeva inflicted eight abrasions and one wound on the face of the policeman - this was qualified as violence dangerous to life or health. The Ministry of Health responded to the lawyer's request that the wounds and abrasions themselves do not cause harm to health if they have not become infected. The court expert Maskhud Chumakov considered that the very fact of bandaging was evidence of harm to health. In addition, in his expert report, the lawyers found the phrase "discuss on the forum", which suggests that part of the document was sloppily copied from the Internet.

In April, Musaeva's lawyers claimed falsification of evidence indicating the discovery of the victim's blood under the woman's fingernails: the defence lawyers pointed out that there was no connection between the nail slices taken from Musaeva and those examined in the case materials.

During a year and a half in the pre-trial detention centre, Musaeva developed serious health problems. In early June, due to back pain, she was practically unable to move. In addition, the woman suffers from type 2 diabetes and several related diseases that require constant medical supervision. Musaeva's lawyers reported that she suffers from acute hypertensive crises, which sometimes lead to loss of consciousness.

Despite this, Musaeva is denied a thorough examination and hospitalisation. On 5 June 2023, she was admitted to the hospital for a routine check-up, but the very next day, she was returned to the pre-trial detention centre. On 15 June, Musaeva reported that she was feeling better. According to the woman, doctors examined her and took tests.

On 4 July 2023, Musaeva was sentenced to five and a half years in a general regime colony. On the day of the verdict, Aleksandr Nemov, her lawyer, and Elena Milashina, a journalist of Novaya Gazeta who had previously written about Chechnya, were brutally beaten by unknown persons upon arrival in Grozny.

On 12 September 2023, the court of appeal reduced Musaeva's sentence to five years and replaced the general regime colony with an open prison. On 5 March 2024, the Court of Cassation reduced the sentence by three months.

On 29 October 2024, an investigator came to Musaeva's colony to question her about her alleged assault on a Federal Penitentiary Service officer who accompanied her on her daily trips to the hospital. Musaeva denies the fact of the attack; she does not know what incident is in question. In November 2024, it became known that a case was opened against Musaeva for disorganising the work of the Federal Penitentiary Service institution. According to the investigation, she hit an employee on the neck and tore off his epaulette. On 6 August 2025, Musaeva was sentenced to three years and 11 months in a penal colony in this case.

You can read more about politically persecuted people in the Telegram channel OVD-Info LIVE and our politically motivated criminal prosecutions in Russia database