Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a Chechen vlogger and a fierce critic of Ramzan Kadyrov, is alive, says Laurent Lafleur of a court in Munich. Abdurakhmanov was rumoured to have been killed recently in Sweden.
“I can confirm that we have received information that the witness is alive,” said court spokesman Laurent Lafleur.
The court in Munich is currently hearing an indictment against a man who allegedly planned the murder of Tumso Abdurakhmanov’s brother, who is also in exile but has settled in Germany. Tumso is expected to testify in the trial.
The purpose of the planned murder of the brother was said to have been to frighten Tumso Aburakhmanov into silence.
Kavkaz.Realii reported yesterday, citing a non-recognised Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in exile, that Tumso Abdurakhmanov was alive under protection of the Swedish police.
“According to the information that the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria has, Tumso Abdurakhmanov is alive and is under the protection of the Swedish police,” the spokesman said, referring to “his own sources of information”.
1ADAT, a Telegram channel, and Radio Free Europe reported earlier this week that Tumso Abdurakhmanov had been assassinated in Sweden. “We have enough information to confirm Tumso’s death. His brother Muhammad has been put into hiding by special services for safety reasons. <…> We cannot go into any more detail for the safety of our informers and ourselves, too. Tumso was shot dead by a group of people during night time, the details of the assassination are now being clarified,” said the Telegram channel.
Abdurakhmanov used to work as a top manager at a state enterprise in Russia’s republic of Chechnya, but left the republic in 2015 after illegal detention and a conflict with Islam Kadyrov, a relative of Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya. In exile, he set up a YouTube channel where he criticised the leaders of the Chechen Republic. In particular, in March 2019, Abdurakhmanov posted a video in which he called the first president of Chechnya, Akhmat Kadyrov, a “traitor” to the Chechen people. Over time, his channel became the most popular in Chechnya.
An unknown individual broke into Abdurakhmanov’s Swedish apartment in February 2020 and hit him several times with a hammer in his sleep. The blogger managed to disarm the attacker and called the police. A Swedish court later found two Russian nationals guilty of attempted assassination and sentenced them to 8 and 12 years in prison.
