Almost 25 thousand Russians demand to find the Chechen woman Selima Ismailova

More than 24 thousand Russian citizens signed a petition demanding to find the 20-year-old Chechen woman Selima Ismailova. She ran away from domestic violence, but on June 12 she was detained at Vnukovo airport and handed over to the Chechen police. Since then, her whereabouts have not been reported. Ismailova spoke about the beatings by her father and that he promised to “break all her bones.”

The authors of the petition fear for the life and health of Ismailova. They demand that the case of Ismailova be investigated at the place of her detention, that is, in Moscow, and not in Chechnya.

With the help of human rights activists, Selima Ismailova ran away from home in Chechnya and tried to fly to Germany. She was detained after her relatives reported that she had allegedly committed theft. The “Marem” human rights center, which helped Ismailova, notes that theft charges are standard in cases of Caucasian women fleeing domestic violence: they allow an adult fugitive to be declared wanted and detained.

After being detained in Moscow, Ismailova was handed over to the Chechen police. She was taken to the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Achkhoi-Martanovsky district. However, as reported by the authors of the petition, the lawyers cannot find her: the department’s employees claim that Ismailova did not come to them. Anastasia Tyunyaeva’s lawyer Ismailova was not allowed to get acquainted with the case materials.

• At the age of 12, Ismailova moved to Germany with her parents, brothers and sisters. There she was subjected to violence due to conflicts with her mother. In the summer of 2021, Selima was sent to live with her grandmother in Achkhoi-Martan, her father, who had flown there from Germany, beat the girl and threatened to kill her.
• Domestic violence is one of the systemic problems of the North Caucasus. Local residents are subjected to it by their husbands and other family members. As a rule, the police ignore such cases, and in the case of criminal cases, the courts impose minimal punishments.
• Over the past ten years, draft laws on the prevention of domestic violence have been submitted to the State Duma more than 40 times, but have not passed a single reading. In 2017, the article on beatings was removed from the Russian Criminal Code, and administrative responsibility was introduced for domestic violence.