Kazakhstan has approved the extradition to Russia of a Chechen activist who reported torture.

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Kazakhstan has approved a request to extradite Chechen activist Mansur Movlaev to Russia, reported human rights defender Murat Adam.

The published document states that the activist must be handed over to Russia within 30 days after the extradition decision comes into force. The activist’s support group fears that if he is extradited, he will face torture again.

Earlier, Movlaev was denied refugee status in Kazakhstan. He appealed this decision.

The activist was detained in Almaty, a major city in southern Kazakhstan, in May 2025. He had been living in the city since late 2023. Before that, Movlaev had been detained in Kyrgyzstan. He was convicted there for illegal border crossing, and then expelled from the country.

24 February: The Supreme Court of Kazakhstan suspended the decision to extradite activist Mansur Movlaev to Russia, reported his lawyer Rena Kerimova.

He will remain in the pre-trial detention centre until a final decision on his asylum application is made.

27 February: The Administrative Court of Akmola Region denied Mansur Movlaev refugee status, reports DW. His lawyer plans to appeal this decision.

The court ruled that the activist and his lawyers did not provide convincing evidence that his life was under threat in Russia. The court also noted that Movlaev is being prosecuted on extortion charges.

• Mansur Movlaev is a taekwondo master and engineer. In 2020, he was convicted in Russia on drug distribution charges (Article 228 of the Criminal Code). He himself linked this prosecution to his criticism of the Chechen authorities.
• In 2022, the activist was released on parole. In August that year, he was abducted by police officers from the Shali District Department of Internal Affairs. He ended up in one of Chechnya’s “illegal prisons,” where he was tortured. In 2023, he managed to escape and leave for Kyrgyzstan. Soon, Movlaev was added to the federal wanted list in a case concerning the financing of extremist activities (Part 1, Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code). According to 1ADAT, the activist was accused of transferring money to a cryptocurrency wallet belonging to a channel that was being tracked by law enforcement.
• In 2024, Movlaev reported that his brothers had been abducted in Chechnya and held in a police department for at least a month.