Chechen official accuses human rights activists of complicity in murder of woman found dead in Armenia

A senior official from the Russian republic of Chechnya has accused human rights groups of complicity in the murder of Aishat Baymuradova, a Chechen woman who was found dead in Armenia on Monday.

Chechnya’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Mansur Soltaev, said on his Telegram channel on Wednesday that Baymuradova had been taken out of Chechnya by “pseudo human rights activists” and “foreign agents” who he believes may be complicit in her murder.

Baymuradova, 23, had been living in Yerevan after fleeing her abusive family in Chechnya. She went missing on Friday after meeting a friend from Instagram, who was believed to have ties to allies of Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov. On Monday, her body was found in a rented flat in Yerevan, with unverified reports suggesting that she had been strangled.

Soltaev also claimed that human rights activists had “kidnapped and hidden” another Chechen woman, Seda Suleymanova, who is feared dead at the hands of her Chechen relatives, to try and “discredit” Chechnya. 

Suleymanova, who had left her family and chosen to live independently in St. Petersburg, was returned to Chechnya against her will in August 2023. Soltaev notably appeared in the last known picture of Suleymanova that he posted six days after her abduction, with Suleymanova wearing a headscarf and looking visibly battered.

Both Baymuradova and Suleymanova are believed to have been victims of so-called “honour killings”, a practice involving close male relatives murdering women for what they deem “immoral behaviour”.

Soltaev went on to claim that human rights groups working in the North Caucasus purposefully targeted “vulnerable and weak” women and took them out of Chechnya “to create the illusion of widespread domestic violence” in the region and discredit its “spiritual and family values”.