Exclusive
Status: October 18, 2021 5:00 a.m.
When it comes to Chechens, it is often related to clans and crime. But many live in uncertainty and fear of deportation to Russia, where prison and torture are threatened.
“I’m not an economic refugee, I didn’t come here because the lights or the gas were turned off. I had food, I had an apartment, I had money. The only thing I didn’t have in Russia was security,” says Schach Nashayev. The Chechen fled the North Caucasus to Germany in 2016. He applied for asylum and was rejected. His lawyer Inga Schulz is suing the administrative court in Potsdam against the decision of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), because Naschajew has a right to recognition as a refugee.
In Russia, of which he is a citizen, he is convinced that he only has two options: he would have to work for the security forces of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and betray his compatriots. Because he rejects this on principle, he faces jail.
Nashayev is marked by a war wound. He was wounded in an attack by Russian forces in 2002. At that time the second Chechen War was raging, it had protected the British journalist Roddy Scott. The reporter was killed in the attack and Nashayev was shot in the leg. He went to jail. His wound was not treated. “On the contrary, they beat me.” He suggests further abuse. “They hated us,” he says. The Russian law enforcement agencies are “gangs” under the orders of President Vladimir Putin and his governor Kadyrov. Naschajew sees him as a “traitor” to his own people.
“In limbo”
When he was released in 2015 after 13 years in prison, he was supposed to work for the Chechen secret service. He refused. After his escape, doctors in Potsdam treated his old wound. “I am grateful to the Germans, especially the doctors who healed my leg.” He has an apartment and a car. He graduated from driving school and trained as a ship electrician. But even if he can live comfortably, he is not happy. “I’ve been in limbo for six years. I can’t find a job. I don’t have any papers.” He doesn’t come back and forth.
What he wants is a clear message: “If you grant me political asylum, give it to me. If not, say no and let me go to a third country.” Not to Russia, where he was on several death lists, but to a country with resettlement programs like Canada or Great Britain, where the family of the journalist who was killed could help him.
Increased duration of asylum procedures
Many Chechens in Germany find themselves in such unsettled situations, attorney Schulz confirms. It is estimated that 50,000 Chechens live in Germany. In Berlin and Brandenburg, where many are accommodated upon arrival, around 16,000.
According to the Federal Government, the average duration of official asylum procedures in 2020 was 8.3 months. In most cases, however, lengthy legal proceedings follow: In 2020, an average of 73 percent of all negative notices were sued. The average time it takes to reach a final decision has increased in recent years; in the first half of 2020 it was more than two years.
Demand for a quality offensive at the BAMF
In a response to a request from the Left Party parliamentary group in June, the federal government justified the increased duration of the proceedings with corona protective measures and with the fact that the BAMF branch offices had primarily completed older proceedings during the time when fewer asylum seekers had come. This has allowed the total duration of the proceedings to increase statistically.
The Green Bundestag member Luise Amtsberg declared that an acceleration of the procedure was fundamentally desirable. But it should not be at the expense of fairness in the asylum procedure or the advice given to those seeking protection. “For good and quick decisions, a proper quality offensive must take place in the BAMF.”
14 months in custody
The situation is particularly depressing for those who have to wait in extradition custody for official and judicial decisions. One example is the Chechen Omar Salukvadze. He was extradited in Cottbus for 14 months. The decision to be extradited to Russia could have overtaken him any day. Jail and possibly torture await him there too. Russian investigative authorities accuse him of double murder and a murder conspiracy. They had put him out to be wanted at Interpol, which is why he was arrested in Germany in 2020. Salukwadze rejects the allegations: They are only an excuse. He is on death lists because he fought in the Chechen war and worked for the Georgian security authorities.
In February he testified as a witness in the trial of the murder of Chechen-born Georgian Selimchan Changoshvili in Berlin. A Russian is accused of having carried out the murder with the help of government agencies in Russia.
He, Salukvadze, had watched with Changoshvili who had come from Russia to the Georgian Pankisi Valley and reported suspicious facts. Changoshvili has since been killed for having information about Russian agents in Germany. When asked by the judges and lawyers, however, he did not want to be more specific and thus caused doubts. However, a former Georgian Deputy Interior Minister confirmed that both of them worked for the country’s anti-terrorist center.
Salukwadze’s survey showed that, in addition to the language barrier, there are cultural differences in the description of events, such as the accuracy of time information. Often those affected cannot describe their experiences stringently because they are traumatized. In addition, they often lack photos or documents as evidence.
Russia’s commitments “not resilient”
Salukvadze had evidence. The Brandenburg Higher Regional Court has now ruled that his extradition to Russia is inadmissible. In its reasoning, the court also referred to an assessment by the German Foreign Office at the end of September: photos and a list of names strongly indicated that the persecuted was a member of a group active in the Chechen war. This suggests that there is no fair criminal trial awaiting him in Russia.
The Foreign Office therefore considers the assurances given by Russia to be “not resilient”. Because it was not ensured that the criminal proceedings there would meet the minimum standards of international law, extradition would prove to be inadmissible. Salukwadze was then released from prison.
“It is good and, above all, high time that the Federal Foreign Office finally correctly assesses the situation of Chechen refugees and recognizes the threats of persecution for the people in Chechnya normal partner are considered, “said Green politician Amtsberg.
Abuse as a “deeply rooted problem”
As early as 2019, the Council of Europe’s Anti-Torture Committee warned Russian authorities to take action against ill-treatment by law enforcement officers in the North Caucasus and to investigate any allegations. Torture of detainees is a “deeply rooted problem”. This speaks for a breach of duty by the Chechen authorities and for a failure of the central government to supervise.
The fact that torture is not limited to prisons in the North Caucasus is shown by recent publications by the Russian prisoner rights group gulagu.net, which released videos of serious abuse. These are only a few examples from an archive that document systematic torture for the purpose of humiliation and extortion of prisoners.
Peter Franck from Amnesty International in Germany points out that his organization has received more and more inquiries from lawyers about extradition requests from Chechnya in recent years. “Often the specified offenses are offenses long in the past or even less serious offenses.” Defendants would usually also be convicted, with corruption playing a role alongside political reasons. “The judgment in the Salukwadze case now gives hope that the sensitivity for the conditions in the judicial system in Russia and especially in the North Caucasus has increased,” said Franck.