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Russia's Novaya Gazeta Publishes New Details Of Allegedly Missing, 'Executed' Chechens


Novaya Gazeta's July 31 report builds on a report earlier this month about 27 individuals allegedly Novaya Gazeta alleges that dozens of individuals were executed without trials in Chechnya after being implicated in shootouts in Grozny. (file photo)
Novaya Gazeta's July 31 report builds on a report earlier this month about 27 individuals allegedly Novaya Gazeta alleges that dozens of individuals were executed without trials in Chechnya after being implicated in shootouts in Grozny. (file photo)

A respected Russian newspaper has published additional information about two dozen Chechens allegedly executed without trial after they were arrested over clashes with police in Russia's southern Chechnya region last year.

Novaya Gazeta's July 31 report builds on a report earlier this month about 27 individuals allegedly executed without trials after they were implicated in the December 17 shootouts in Chechnya's capital, Grozny.

It includes more details, including photographs, about 24 of those individuals based on materials reportedly obtained from police structures in the North Caucasus region, which has been led by Kremlin-backed strongman Ramzan Kadyrov for a decade.

The report includes documents related to an 18-year-old woman who was arrested in December and reportedly died in unclear circumstances. Along with two other individuals reportedly executed without trials, the woman was formally charged with involvement in the Grozny violence, Novaya Gazeta reported.

At least seven other individuals who were in contact with the three were also detained and executed later, the report alleged.

A second list published by Novaya Gazeta on July 31 includes 67 men the newspaper says are missing. The report alleged that 14 of them were executed without trials.

The newspaper also published photographs of some of the allegedly missing persons. Some of the photographs show individuals with their hands cuffed to radiators or bars on walls.

Novaya Gazeta also reported that mobile phones belonging to some of those allegedly executed have been taken to Syria by Chechen officials in order to create evidence that they are alive and have joined Islamic State forces there.

The report alleged that relatives of the missing Chechens were forced to sign papers saying that the individuals had left Chechnya and that they have no grounds for filing claims with authorities.

Novaya Gazeta has angered Kadyrov with a series of reports alleging grave abuses -- including torture and executions – by the law-enforcement and paramilitary forces he oversees.

These have included reports on an alleged campaign of violence targeting gay men in the region.

Kadyrov and other senior officials in Chechnya have repeatedly rejected these reports as "lies."

With reporting by Novaya Gazeta
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