Kyrgyz court orders Chechen activist’s deportation    

A Kyrgyz court has ordered the deportation of a Chechen activist who is a harsh critic of Ramzan Kadyrov, reports say.   

Mansur Movlayev was detained by Kyrgyz authorities in August. Later, a court found him guilty of illegally entering Kyrgyzstan and gave him six months in jail.  

Speaking in court at the time, Movlayev asked for a longer prison term, and not to be extradited to Russia. 

On Monday, the Bishkek City Court ordered his early release and deportation to Russia, according to a video from the hearing posted by Kloop.kg website on its Telegram channel.  

“Every bribe-taker, every unfair judge will answer before Allah’s highest court,” Movlayev told the panel of judges before their ruling. 

“Pharaoh fell, Putin will fall too. Nothing is eternal,” he said. 

His lawyer Bakyt Avtandil was quoted as saying that Movlayev’s deportation to Chechnya would equal “sending him to his death”.  

“Ramzan Kadyrov’s dictatorial regime won’t leave him alone,” he said, according to Kloop.kg.  

Before fleeing Chechnya in 2022, Movlyaev was involved in investigating people’s disappearances under Kadyrov’s government – a practice believed to be used by the regime to silence critics.  

Movlayev is also opposed to Russia’s war on Ukraine. 

In 2020 Movlayev was sentenced in Russia to three years in jail. He was released in 2022, detained again and held in one of Kadyrov’s ‘illegal prisons’, from where he managed to escape, according to kavkaz-uzel.eu website. 

He is currently wanted by Russian authorities over the alleged funding of an extremist organisation – a charge that he and his supporters say is fabricated. 

Movlayev’s Kyrgyz lawyers intend to appeal the deportation order. 

However, they fear that Movlayev might be abducted and taken out of the country “by the Russian special services at any moment now”. 

“The court has ruled to release me. Now, they are probably going to deport me and hand me over to killers,” Movlayev said after the court ruling. 

Kyrgyz authorities have recently handed over to Russia several Russian anti-war activists who were seeking refuge in the country. 

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