“Clearly security services are on alert” to try to prevent future attacks, said Anne le Huerou, an expert on post-Soviet conflicts at Paris Nanterre University. No official statistics on the extraditions exist, but the Council of Europe denounced the abuse of the Interpol system by some countries to “persecute political opponents abroad” in a 2017 report.Įxiles also believe European countries have toughened their line against them because of terror fears after Chechens were involved in a number of jihadist attacks. Hundreds of Chechens have been expelled from the European Union since it signed a 2006 agreement with Russia to ease the return of convicted suspects or those subject to an Interpol red notice. The Austrian authorities refused to discuss the case despite numerous attempts by AFP through police and judicial sources.
Nazuev wonders if the charges and possible extradition he is facing could be linked to the fact that one of his relations fought in Syria with the Islamic State group. “They are rewriting history,” said the thickset man in his 50s, whose name has been changed to protect him. Nazuev denies that he “killed innocent people”, insisting that he and other Chechen fighters were only “defending ourselves from the Russian invader”. He had heard nothing from Moscow since he left until a letter from the Austrian prosecutor’s office arrived accusing him of terrorism and murder.Īccording to a document seen by AFP, prosecutors claim to have intelligence that he took part in a massacre of Russian civilians in 1995. He had fled there with his children after the second conflict fearing retribution for fighting with the “boeviki”, the Chechen rebels who defeated the Russians during the first war between 19, when Chechnya briefly won its independence.
Moscow’s arm reached Zorbek Nazuev, a grandfather with a long grey beard who has lived in Austria for 18 years, last February. Others are afraid of being sent back to be tortured and killed - a fear that is far from unfounded according to human rights groups.īefore the war in Ukraine, extraditions of Chechens from Europe to Russia were being speeded up after the terror attack on the Boston Marathon and the gruesome murder of a French teacher by a young exile.ĭespite the conflict, there are no signs the deportations will stop.
Dozens told AFP of the constant menace of being targeted by Kadyrov’s notorious henchmen, the “Kadyrovtsy”, who have been accused of hunting down his opponents abroad.