Seda Suleymanova. Photo: Where is Seda?
Chechnya’s representative in Russia’s State Duma has told activists investigating the disappearance and possible “honour killing” of missing Chechen woman Seda Suleymanova that he is unable to help them locate her, saying the matter went beyond his remit, human rights group North Caucasus SOS said on Monday.
The refusal to help find Suleymanova by Adam Delimkhanov, a close associate of Kremlin-appointed Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov, is another blow to activists in their attempts to get the Russian authorities to step in and determine the fate of Suleymanova, who has not been seen since August 2023.
Activists who created the Where is Seda? website to raise awareness of the case wrote to Duma deputies in August to ask them to intervene and said on Monday that they had received responses from 59 of 446 deputies, with only 12 expressing willingness to help.
North Caucasus SOS, which offers assistance to LGBTQ+ people and their families in the notoriously homophobic region, pointed out that the supposed boundaries of Delimkhanov’s remit had not prevented him from interfering in the case of another Chechen woman, Liya Zaurbekova, who in May ran away from relatives in Moscow who were attempting to take her back to Chechnya against her will.
Despite Zaurbekova’s family members surrounding the police station where she was taking refuge, Zaurbekova did ultimately manage to escape abroad, however.
According to the State Duma’s official website, any of its members may “appeal to officials to take immediate action to stop citizens’ rights being violated”, North Caucasus SOS pointed out.
Suleymanova, who fled Chechnya for St. Petersburg in 2022 to avoid an arranged marriage, was abducted from her new home and returned to Chechnya against her will in August 2023.
There has been no news of her since her return to Chechnya, and two separate sources have told North Caucasus SOS that she may have been murdered by her relatives for her disobedience.
