Kazakhstani court extends arrest of Chechen activist facing extradition to Russia

A court in Kazakhstan has extended the year-long arrest of Mansur Movlayev, an outspoken critic of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, for an additional two months until July 2026, his supporters announced on Sunday.

The decision was reached on Friday during a hearing that neither Movlayev nor his lawyers were permitted to attend. Movlayev’s supporters decried the extension as unconstitutional, noting that Kazakhstani law does not ordinarily allow for extradition-related arrests to exceed 12 months.

Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court suspended extradition proceedings for Movlayev on 24 February following an “urgent” intervention by the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR). The Kazakhstani authorities have until 24 August to submit their official response to the UNCHR.

Police in Almaty arrested Movlayev in May 2025, more than a year after the activist first arrived in Kazakhstan, when authorities in Russia charged him with “financing extremist activity” and demanded his extradition from Kazakhstan.

In late January, a court in Almaty denied Movlayev’s appeal for asylum, rejecting the activist’s claim that he would face torture and possible death in Russia and upholding an earlier deportation order.

Movlayev was kidnapped by Chechen security forces in 2022, and held in one of the region’s “secret prisons” for criticising the North Caucasus republic’s government. He originally fled to Kyrgyzstan using a fake passport, then moved to Kazakhstan in 2024 after a Kyrgyzstani court deported him for violating the country’s immigration law.

According to Russian prosecutors, Movlayev is wanted for donating money to the Chechen opposition Telegram channel 1ADAT, which was labeled an “extremist organisation” by Chechnya’s Supreme Court in 2022.

In their statement, supporters said that the decision to extend Movlayev’s arrest was taken without regard for “the interim measures currently in force issued by the UN Human Rights Committee [and] the position of the UN Special Rapporteur on the risk of torture”.

“The Mansur Movlayev case is no longer just a question of one extradition,” they added. “It is a question of whether Kazakhstan complies with its own Constitution, the Criminal Procedure Code, and its international human rights obligations.”