Murad Amriyev, the mixed martial arts fighter who was arrested in Belarus and brought to Grozny by Chechen police last week, was released from custody on 9 June on condition that he does not leave the republic. After leaving the police station, Amriyev gave a press conference in Grozny on 10 June to ‘clarify the situation’ around his arrest.

Amriyev claimed during the press conference that he is staying in his home with his parents, and does not feel any pressure from the authorities. His parents earlier stated that he was in danger at home, while several media outlets reported that his parents had left the republic.

Amriyev says that he sought Belarusian citizenship while in custody there, but that he was prevented from making an application.

When asked why he was so reluctant to go to Chechnya, Amriyev answered that the reason was a criminal case against him for using a forged document.

‘It all was because I didn’t have any information about what would happen to me in Chechnya. That’s why I was concerned’, he said. Amriyev said that he now thinks that he is safe, but avoided speaking of his future plans.

‘Now, for me it is important that my parents are calm, and to solve the issue of the documents’, he added.

According to Russian rights group the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, the real reason for Amriyev’s detention is that a high ranking Chechen police official, Magomed Dashaev, has publicly declared a blood feud against the Amriyev family.

Murab’s brother Zurab Amriyev, who currently resides in Europe, appealed on Friday to Dashaev, who accuses him of attacking him, to meet with him at a neutral location to discuss the issue.

‘I was accused of an attack or attempted attack on this policeman. It all began from this. I left Chechnya in 2007. I lived in Poland at first, then in Germany. I didn’t participate in the attack’, RBK quoted Zurab Amriyev.

The official reason for Amriyev’s initial detention on the Russian–Ukrainian border in Bryansk on 4 June was an inaccuracy in his passport, where the year of birth was incorrectly indicated.

On 6 June, Amriyev managed to secretly flee from the police station in the Bryansk Oblast in Russia, but was detained again 24 hours later by Belarusian border guards while attempting to enter the country.