Zarema Musaeva

A resident of Chechnya, wife of a retired judge of the republic's Supreme Court, and mother of activists Ibragim and Abubakar Yangulbayev, who criticise the republic's head Ramzan Kadyrov. In January 2022, Zarema Musaeva was forcibly taken from Nizhny Novgorod to Chechnya, allegedly for questioning in a fraud case. There, the she was sentenced to 15 days of arrest for 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 use of violence against a police officer (Part 2 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code).

According to the Committee Against Torture, the state investigation claimed that in 2017 Zarema Musaeva, together with an "accomplice", implemented a fraudulent scheme related to consumer loans, and after being taken to Grozny for interrogation, scratched a policeman's cheek.

In February 2022, a court in Grozny sent Zarema Musaeva to a pre-trial detention centre. Zarema Musaeva pleaded not guilty.

The fraud case was based on the testimony of a co-defendant, who was released from the pre-trial detention centre after entering into a plea-bargaining agreement.

Some of the witnesses who claimed that Zarema Musaeva had attacked the policeman were not eyewitnesses but allegedly learnt about the incident from their colleagues. The investigation did not provide the video footage from the police department - moreover, the department's employees claimed that the recordings from the CCTV cameras were not stored, whereas, according to the state procurement website, the recordings should have been stored for at least 14 days.

According to the investigation, Zarema Musaeva inflicted eight abrasions with her fingers and one wound on the victim's face, which was qualified as violence dangerous to life or health. In response to Zarema Musaeva lawyers' request for information, the Ministry of Health stated that wounds and abrasions themselves do not cause harm to health - unless they have become inflamed or suppurated. Nonetheless, the prosecution expert Maskhud Chumakov concluded that the very fact of bandaging evidenced the harm to the policeman's health. In his expert report, the lawyers dicovered a note reading "to be discussed on the forum", which suggests that part of the document had been sloppily copied from the Internet.

In April Zarema Musaeva's lawyers made a claim regarding falsification of evidence which evidence suggested that that the victim's blood had been discovered under the accused fingernails. The defence lawyers pointed out that the case materials did not confirm the connection between the nail samples collected from Zarema Musaeva and those actually examined during the investigation.

During a year and a half in the pre-trial detention centre, Zarema Musaeva started to experience serious health problems. In early June, she was practically unable to walk due to back pain. In addition, she suffers from type 2 diabetes and a number of related diseases that require constant medical supervision. Zarema Musaeva's lawyers reported that she also suffers from acute hypertensive crises, sometimes accompanied by loss of consciousness.

Despite the above, Zarema Musaeva continues to be denied thorough medical examination and hospitalisation. On 5 June 2023, she was admitted to hospital for a routine check-up, but the very next day she was transferred back to the pre-trial detention centre. On 15 June, Zarema Musaeva reported that she was feeling better and that she had been examined and tested.

On 4 July 2023, Zarema Musaeva was sentenced to five and a half years in a general regime colony. On the day when the verdict was announced, Alexander Nemov, Zarema Musaeva's lawyer, and Elena Milashina, Novaya Gazeta reporter who had previously covered Chechnya and had come to Grozny, were brutally beaten by unknown persons.

On 12 September 2023, the court of appeal reduced Zarema Musaeva's sentence to five years and replaced the general regime colony with a colony-settlement. On 5 March 2024, the court of cassation reduced the sentence by three months.

On 29 October 2024, an investigative officer came to Zarema Musaeva's colony to question her about her alleged assault on an Federal Penitentiary Service officer who accompanied her on her daily hospital visits. Zarema Musaeva denied the attack and stated that she was unaware of the incident. In November 2024, it became known that a new case was initiated against Zarema Musaeva, this time for disorganising the work of the Federal Penitentiary Service institution. According to the state investigation, she had hit a Federal Penitentiary Service employee on the neck and tore off his epaulette. On 6 August 2025, Zarema Musaeva was sentenced to three years and 11 months in a penal colony. On 16 February 2026, the court of appeal cancelled the sentence.

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