Status: 03/03/2022 12:28 p.m
Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a Russian citizen for plotting to murder an opposition figure from Chechnya. The order is said to have come from those around Kadyrov.
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office has accused a man of allegedly state-planned contract killing of a critic of the Chechen leadership before the Higher Regional Court (OLG) in Munich. The Karlsruhe authorities accuse the Russian citizen Walid D. of having agreed to the murder.
In addition, he is accused of preparing a serious, state-threatening act of violence and violations of the Weapons Act before the state security senate of the OLG, as the federal prosecutor announced.
Planned murder of members of the opposition
According to the authorities, the accused was commissioned in 2020 to organize the murder of an exiled opposition figure living in Germany. He got a firearm with ammunition and a silencer and spied on the victim. Someone else was supposed to do the murder, but he only accepted the job for fear of reprisals.
The accused came from Germany to Chechnya in September 2020 to smuggle the alleged assassin into the Federal Republic. After their arrival there, they would have practiced shooting, searched for a suitable crime scene and scouted out the victim’s place of residence.
Order from Kadyrov environment?
A member of the security apparatus around Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov is said to have given the order. “The announced victim and his brother are critics of the Kadyrov regime and advocate an independent Chechnya on social media,” it said.
According to research by MDR and Der Spiegel, who first reported on the investigation last year, said the murder plans were for opposition figure Mochmad Abdurachmanow. His brother, the blogger Tumso Abdurachmanow, was assassinated in February 2020 in Sweden. Two Russians were therefore sentenced to long prison terms.
As the “Spiegel” reports, Mochmad Abdurachmanow lived as an asylum seeker in Bavaria. The federal prosecutor argued that the brother was supposed to be silenced with the murder. She herself does not name the victims.
Defendant denies allegations
The man’s defense attorney told “Spiegel” that his client denies the allegations. On New Year’s Day 2021, the accused was arrested in Schwerin on the basis of an arrest warrant from the Augsburg district court. He was taken into custody. The Munich Higher Regional Court must now decide whether to allow the indictment and start a procedure.
Critics accuse Kadyrov of brutal rule with clan structures and corrupt officials. The president of the Russian republic of Chechnya is considered a loyal ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.