Father of Ingush woman who fled domestic abuse says he’s using official channels to track her down
Hambor Mankiev, the father of 21-year-old Aina Mankieva from Ingushetia, has told journalists from the Telegram channel Ostorozhno, Media that he is using his connections in law enforcement to locate his daughter and bring her back.
‘I don’t know whether she is at home or not. There is a criminal search. Everything is connected. They have been looking for her for a long time. She ran away from us a long time ago, about six or seven months ago. We filed a missing persons report’, Hambor said in an interview.
Aina Mankieva was detained in Moscow on the night of 15 January on suspicion of theft, but later left the Sviblovo police station accompanied by a lawyer. She filed a statement requesting the initiation of a criminal case against her relatives in connection with domestic abuse and asked not to be returned to them, fearing for her safety.
Mankiev emphasised that the reasons for his daughter leaving home are unknown to him.
‘Did we argue? No, we didn’t argue, I didn’t do anything, didn’t hit her. She must have done something, probably. She slowly, slowly prepared something, someone helped her. You raised your daughter, cared for her, and she left home. Would you have searched for her or sat idly by? That’s why we are looking for our daughter’, Mankiev said.
He emphasized that he and his family are taking every possible measure to bring her back.
‘We are working, the authorities are working. Many people are involved — the police, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Security Service (FSB), the prosecutor’s office. While nothing moves without us, we will be kept informed. They often call us, often come here, take photos, make videos. We’ll see what they do there. They say sooner or later we will find her’, Mankiev said.
Mankiev claimed that the family provided his daughter with all the conditions for life and education and ‘treated her very gently’. According to him, everything was bought for her, she was cared for, and everything was done for her. After school, she was ‘sent to a college to become an educated person’.
‘To earn money, to simply live happily. We bought her an apartment, we did renovations’, Mankiev said.
He also expressed certainty that someone could have ‘recruited’ the young woman, though he did not clarify as to what he thought she was recruited for.
‘She lived in comfort, had everything. She ran away with someone, I don’t know. But the main thing is who recruited her, who did this, who prepared her, I want to find the criminal. It destroys families. Without a mother, without a father, without brothers, without sisters — no one can be happy’, Mankiev said.
‘I will find them at any cost. For this, the authorities are working up to the top, even up to the State Duma. We will not leave this unresolved’, he added.
Earlier, Mankiev was convicted of attempting to sell a two-year-old foster child and received a suspended sentence, despite the charge carrying a maximum of ten years in prison.
According to Mankieva, her family belongs to the religious-communal group of the Batalkhadzhi, whose members practice strict control over family members, early marriages, and limit opportunities for girls’ education.
Mankieva expressed concern that relatives and members of the community could search for her or cause her harm.
‘I think the whole vird (all relatives) will be looking for me, which has extensive resources and connections, and each man in the vird has unregistered firearms. Also, the vird exercises strict control and treatment of children, early marriage for girls (from the age of 13), and rarely allows girls to study even up to the ninth grade’, Mankieva said.
Mankieva’s case previously drew the attention of Russian MP Vladislav Davankov. On 15 January, he said he was preparing ‘an appeal’ to Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev to prevent Mankieva from being detained by police again and forced to return home.
On Wednesday, Davankov announced that, in connection with Mankieva’s case, his party New People had submitted a draft law to the lower chamber of parliament on protection against domestic violence.
‘We have submitted a bill to the State Duma that will prohibit returning people to their home region if they face danger. If a detainee claims they may face violence at home, their transfer is allowed only after the claim is checked and with the consent of a court’, Davankov wrote on his Telegram channel.
Elizaveta Chukharova
