I still cannot decide how shall I take a correct view on the answer I received from the Prosecutor’s Office of the Chechen Republic concerning Ramzan Kadyrov’s public statements.
I would like to remind that on 9 December, of last year I addressed the General Prosecutor Yu.Chaika asking him to access the following statement of the Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov:
«I officially declare that the times when there used to be a saying that parents cannot be held responsible for their children’s deeds are over. In Chechnya they will! If a father sees that his son chose a path of terror and Wahhabism let him bring his son to the authorities or stop him by any other means before he is able to spill blood… If a militant in Chechnya commits a murder of a policeman or any other person, the family of this militant will be immediately deported out of Chechnya without a right to return, and their house shall be demolished together with its foundation».
In my opinion, such a statement from a representative of authority, Major-General of the Militia is not acceptable and is criminally liable with regard to Russian legislation. The Prosecutor-General’s Office replied to me that a review of the legality of Ramzan Kadyrov’s statements should be first performed by the Chechen Republic Prosecutor’s Office. And at last yesterday I received a fax message from the Chechen Republic Prosecutor’s Office with the answer to my question:
«It has been established that the statement cited by mass media does not contain any exhortations to commit any crimes. It contains the opinion about negative consequences which may occur for the relatives of individuals taking part in illegal armed groups in case of confirmed information about their support of illegal activity of the latter».
That is, it means that this “officially declare… the family of this militant will be immediately deported, and their house shall be demolished together with its foundation” – this, according to the Prosecutor’s assessment, is «the opinion about negative consequences which may occur for the relatives of individuals»?
It is hard to argue that deportation and demolishment of housing are negative consequences for the people. However, a question arises in relation to the legality of such «consequences» and the legality of official statements of the head of the region on this matter. That’s what my message was about. But the prosecutor left this main question unanswered, cynically calling the measures, proposed by R.Kadyrov, «negative consequences».
It needs to go and review the materials of the prosecutor’s check and none the less request the Prosecutor General this time to peruse once again this statement of Kadyrov with more accuracy. It would be very interesting to learn their view on the topic of different «negative consequences» conformity with the law.
By the way, Chief Investigatory Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for North Caucasian Federal District is conducting a procedural check on my application at the Investigative Committee addressed to Bastrykin. There are two applications justifying this – mine and from Lyudmila Mikhailovna Alekseyeva. The check concerns both the circumstances of Kadyrov’s statements and the fact of arsoning of the office of human rights defenders Joint Mobile Group in Grozny.