Zarema Musaeva

A resident of Chechnya, wife of a retired judge of the republic's Supreme Court, and mother of activists Ibragim and Abubakar Yangulbaev, 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 administrative arrest under the article on petty hooliganism (part 1 of article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences), 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", realised 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 sent the woman to a pre-trial detention centre, where she remains to this day. Musaeva does not admit her guilt.

The fraud case is based on the testimony of another defendant, who was released from the pre-trial detention centre after taking a plea bargain. Some of the witnesses who claimed that Musaeva attacked the policeman were not eyewitnesses and allegedly learnt about the incident from the words of colleagues. The investigation did not provide the video recordings from the police department; moreover, the department's employees claimed that the broadcasts from the video surveillance cameras were not stored, 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, Musaeva inflicted eight abrasions with her fingers and one wound on the face of the victim 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 or suppurated. The 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 pointing to the discovery of the victim's blood under the woman's fingernails: the defenders 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 began to have serious health problems. In early June, due to back pain, she was practically unable to move around. 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, sometimes accompanied by loss of consciousness.

Despite this, Musaeva continues to be denied a thorough examination and hospitalisation. On 5 June 2023, she was admitted to the hospital for a check-up, but the very next day, she was returned to the pre-trial detention centre. On 15 June, Musayeva 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, her lawyer, Alexander Nemov, and Yelena Milashina, a journalist of Novaya Gazeta who had previously written about Chechnya, were brutally beaten by unknown persons in Grozny.

On 12 September 2023, the Court of Appeal reduced Musaeva's sentence to five years and replaced the general regime colony with a settlement colony. 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 an FSIN officer who accompanied her on her daily trips to the hospital. Musaeva denies the fact of the attack; she does not know what incident they are talking about. In November 2024, it became known that a case was opened against Musaeva for disorganising the work of the FSIN 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. On 16 February 2026, the Court of Appeal overturned the verdict. On 4 March 2026, the court of first instance on retrial sentenced Musaeva to three years and ten months in a penal colony.