Mother of disappeared Chechen singer appeals to Kadyrov

Malika Bakayeva, mother of the disappeared singer Zelimkhan Bakayev, has recorded an audio message to the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, pleading with him to help in the search of her son.

She says that she has long felt irresolute about addressing Kadyrov, hoping that her son would return. She eventually decided that there was no one else she could ask for help except to him.

‘My son has disappeared, and it has been two months already. I filed a complaint with the police to the Leninsky District [police] department. They said they would look at it. I do not know anything else about my son. I’m counting on the Almighty, and after him — on you [Kadyrov]. I have no one else to expect help from. In the name of the Lord, I plead: help me, Ramzan’, the woman says in the recording that was spread via instant messaging applications.

A source in the Chechen Interior Ministry informed Kavkaz.Realii that no criminal case would be launched in connection with Bakayev’s disappearance.

‘He traveled at his own initiative, we have his travel routes. And he is a grown adult man. There are no grounds to launch a case’, the source explained.

[Read on OC Media: No criminal case filed in disappearance of Chechen singer Bakayev]

But the Bakayev family did not receive a written response from the Interior Ministry.

‘The Ministry of Internal Affairs hasn’t given us any information. I appealed to the head of the region. My niece sent it three or four days ago. We do not know if the message has reached Ramzan Kadyrov’, said the mother of the singer.

She also expressed her doubts about the supposed travel routes of her son.

‘Wherever he is, he would not leave me without an answer. It has never happened before that he did not pick up my call’, she says.

Earlier, Chechen security officials claimed that a railway ticket along the Nalchik–Moscow route was purchased on the name of Bakayev. The train was to arrive in the capital on 11 August. At the same time, it is known that Zelimkhan was to have an audition on 10 August on the Russian TV singing show Fabrika Zvyozd. Another detail worth mentioning is that it is much more convenient to travel to Moscow by train from Grozny: there is no need for a detour to Nalchik, which is located in another region of Russia, Kabardino-Balkaria.

Kavkaz.Realii does not have comments from the administration of the head of Chechnya regarding Malika Bakayeva’s appeal.

Kavkaz.Realii wrote about the disappearance of Bakayev on 15 August. The singer disappeared in the center of Grozny. According to his close friends, he was kidnapped by law enforcement agents and is being held in a secret prison.

[Read on OC Media: Chechen singer Bakayev ‘alive but in detention’]

Minister of Chechnya on national policy Dzhambulat Umarov called the reports about the disappearance of the singer ‘stupid’. According to him, the singer will reappear ‘after a while’.

On August 18, the mother of the singer filed a complaint to the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs about the disappearance of her son. On August 22, she appealed to the Human Rights Council of Chechnya.

The article is a partner post written by Aslan Bzarov. The original version first appeared on Kavkaz.Realii on 16 September 2017.