Screenshot: NIYSO
The body of a teenager who was killed when he allegedly attacked traffic police in the Chechen town of Achkhoy-Martan on Monday was left on display in the town’s central square, Chechen opposition Telegram channel NIYSO reported on Wednesday.
Government-controlled channel Grozny TV reported that a 17-year-old had been killed when he attacked traffic police in Achkhoy-Martan with a knife on Monday, leaving one police officer dead and injuring a second.
NIYSO gave the surname of the alleged assailant as Khumashev, and said that the Chechen authorities had detained at least six members of his family. There is a long history of families being punished for the crimes of their relatives in Chechnya, with Moscow-installed head Ramzan Kadyrov warning in June that in accordance with blood feud lore, the authorities would “kill everyone — father, brother, uncle.”
On Wednesday morning, locals were summoned to Achkhoy-Martan’s central square without explanation, where they were confronted by the body of a bare-foot teenager whose appearance matched that of the alleged attacker.
Video footage of the event showed a large crowd of people, some visibly distraught, standing in shock around the body. One local, speaking via NIYSO to the parents of the state employees ordered to attend the meeting, warned: “Today your son may be kicking someone’s corpse all over the village, but tomorrow your son will be in his place.”
School-age children as young as 15 were forced to attend the event, news outlet Caucasian Knot reported, citing a local teacher who gave her name solely as Amina, who said several women fainted after seeing the body, while some attempted to leave the square but were not allowed to do so. “Why were we forced to bring our children here? So they can look at the body of a teenager their age, wrapped in a bloody rag?” she asked.
On Monday Kadyrov said that the attacker had been acting on orders from people in Turkey and a citizen of Ukraine, and warned that nobody would be allowed “to use our children as a tool against our own people”.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the incident on Thursday, saying that Moscow did not consider opposition outlets “trustworthy sources” and had “no other information”, state news agency TASS reported.
Meanwhile, Eva Merkacheva, a member of Russia’s Presidential Council for Human Rights, which, despite its name, rarely calls out human rights abuses, took a more critical stance on the events in Achkhoy-Martan, calling them “medieval” and “barbaric” in comments to state-affiliated publication Gazeta.ru.
“It does not and cannot conform to any norms of law. Humanity has evolved to get away from blood feuds, from capital punishment and public displays of cruelty. So what is happening is, in my opinion, a step backwards in terms of culture and civilisation,” Merkacheva said.
