Woman who was forcibly returned to Chechnya after fleeing her family feared victim of ‘honor killing’

A 26-year-old woman from Chechnya, Seda Suleymanova, who was forcibly returned to the republic after escaping from her home there, may have been killed by relatives in an “honor killing,” two separate sources told human rights group SK SOS.

On February 6, SK SOS filed a petition with Russia’s Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor’s Office demanding an urgent investigation into these reports.

SK SOS’s press secretary told Mediazona that human rights activists do not have enough information to definitively state that Suleymanova was killed. “We would like for either the prosecutor's office and human rights organizations to investigate the possible murder or for Seda’s family to come out with a statement and show us Seda,” she said.

Suleymanova fled Chechnya, where her family considered her “insufficiently religious.” In August 2023, she was arrested in St. Petersburg and handed over to relatives in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, without the opportunity to consult lawyers, reported SK SOS.

Police said that Suleymanova was suspected of stealing jewelry worth 150,000 rubles (around $1,645). Suleymanova denied the allegations. According to law enforcement officials, she was taken to the airport; however, lawyers were unable to locate her at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport.

Activists at SK SOS have stressed that abductions under the guise of fabricated criminal charges are a common practice Chechen officials use to return people by force. 

After Suleymanova’s story gained publicity, Mansur Soltaev, Chechnya’s human rights commissioner, published photos and videos with the woman, saying that “everything is fine with her.” SK SOS noted that Suleymanova does not say a word in any of these clips and appears exhausted. Since then, there has been no information about her.