{"id":65437,"date":"2026-09-15T12:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T09:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/?post_type=news&p=65437"},"modified":"2026-09-15T15:18:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T12:18:48","slug":"chechen-activist-mansur-movlayev-awaiting-extradition-from-kazakhstan-attempts-suicide","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/chechen-activist-mansur-movlayev-awaiting-extradition-from-kazakhstan-attempts-suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"Chechen activist Mansur Movlayev, awaiting extradition from Kazakhstan, attempts suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mansur Movlayev has attempted suicide in a pre-trial detention centre in Almaty, where he is being held pending extradition to Russia, Novaya Gazeta Europe<\/a><\/em> reports, citing lawyer Vadim Drozdov, who represents Mansur Movlayev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The activist received medical assistance in time, according to the Anti-War Committee of Russia<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Novaya Gazeta Europe<\/em> published Mansur Movlayev’s suicide note:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘I apologise to all my friends, relatives, lawyers, the EU Delegation, the Netherlands, France, and the UN Committee, who tried to save my life. Forgive me, I’m tired of injustice! Neither the court nor the prosecutor’s office will listen to us! They [Kadyrov’s men] will torture me and kill me, and then say I did it myself. I won’t allow myself to be tortured any longer! For 16 months I lived in fear of being extradited, and in hope\u2026 Now there is only fear!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ask only one thing of Kazakhstan: bury me here, in Kazakhstan. So that they don’t even get my body!’<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the letter, Mansur Movlayev asked that they ‘at least save Yulia’<\/em> \u2014 Russian activist Yulia Yemelyanova, who is also being held in Kazakhstan pending extradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mansur Movlayev is a political activist from Chechnya who has criticised Ramzan Kadyrov. Novaya Gazeta Europe<\/em> recently reported<\/a> his story in detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019 and 2020, the young man passed information about abductions, enforced disappearances, torture and fabricated criminal cases in Chechnya to opposition platforms, including the 1ADAT movement. In 2020, he later said, a drug-trafficking case was fabricated against him. He was sentenced to three years in a penal colony and released on parole in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the summer of 2022, Mansur Movlayev was abducted again by Chechen security forces, who this time held him in a secret, unofficial prison ‘in the yard behind the Shali police department’<\/em>, where he was tortured. ‘According to the defence, during the torture the security forces gained access to Movlayev’s phone. Posing as him, they allegedly began corresponding with an opposition channel, and then transferred cryptocurrency to 1ADAT’s public wallet,’<\/em>Novaya Gazeta Europe<\/em> reported. Mansur managed to escape: ‘according to him, in the room where he was being held he found a nail, used it to take apart the door lock, went out into the yard, and climbed over the fence.’ <\/em>He managed to obtain a forged passport and make his way to Kyrgyzstan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Kyrgyzstan, the activist was detained while trying to travel to Turkey, from where human rights defenders were due to take him on to Europe. Kyrgyz security forces threatened to charge Mansur with attempting to travel to Syria, but he was ultimately sentenced to six months in prison for illegally crossing the border. During the hearing on pre-trial restrictions in this case, his lawyer supported the investigation’s request to remand Mansur Movlayev in custody, believing his client would be safer in a pre-trial detention centre than at liberty, where he risked being abducted by ‘Kadyrov’s men’. ‘I’m ready to spend even ten years in prison here, just to stay alive,’ <\/em>the Chechen said before sentencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 20 November 2023, Mansur Movlayev completed his sentence and was due to be deported from Kyrgyzstan. His lawyers were supposed to accompany him, but he noticed a car with tinted windows near their vehicle and suspected Chechen security officers might be inside: Mansur ‘jumped out of the moving car and fled’.<\/em> He managed to reach Kazakhstan and lived under a false name in Almaty for a year and a half, until 13 May 2025, when he was detained at the request of the Shali district police department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after his detention, Mansur Movlayev applied for asylum in Kazakhstan; he was refused in December 2025. On 27 January, Kazakhstan’s prosecutor’s office approved the Russian authorities’ extradition request. On 23 February, the UN Human Rights Committee<\/em> applied interim measures, ordering Kazakhstan to refrain from extraditing the activist until his complaint had been considered; on 24 February, the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan suspended the extradition. The courts subsequently upheld the refusal of asylum as lawful. On 10 September, this ruling was upheld<\/a> by the Cassation Court of Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Chechnya, Mansur Movlayev’s relatives have been abducted several times since his escape. In May this year, his brother Zelimkhan was hospitalised<\/a> after severe torture. In June, Mansur’s parents were abducted for two weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-65437","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","regions-chechnya-en","regions-kazakhstan","news-type-nashi-novosti-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChechen activist Mansur Movlayev, awaiting extradition from Kazakhstan, attempts suicide - Political prisoners support. 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