Russian police have detained and subsequently released a woman for holding a solo picket demanding an investigation into the alleged death of her friend, Chechen native Seda Suleymanova.
Lena Patyaeva was detained after holding a solo picket near the Akhmat Kadyrov Bridge in Saint Petersburg on Sunday evening. She said she was later released without any charges, thanking everyone for their support.
At the picket, Patyaeva held a poster that read: ‘Stop jailing me. Jail Seda Suleymanova’s killers!’ It was the latest in a series of pickets and protests Patyaeva has held in support of her friend, who is believed to have been abducted from Saint Petersburg and taken to Chechnya in 2023. Since her disappearance, Suleymanova has not made contact with her friends, human rights defenders, or journalists. Patyaeva has stated that she intends to seek punishment for those responsible.
The Sunday demonstration was Patyaeva’s sixth picket. Earlier this year, in January, she was detained in Saint Petersburg during another picket on the Akhmat Kadyrov Bridge, and in March after a picket in Grozny. She was released without charges in both cases.
Suleymanova fled her family in 2022, citing her unwillingness to marry without love and constant conflicts at home. She lived and worked in Saint Petersburg until Chechen security forces reportedly forcibly returned her to Chechnya in August 2023. In February 2024, human rights defenders declared that she may have been killed by her family.
Last week, in an interview with the independent Russian TV channel Dozhd, the director of NC SOS, David Isteev, said that Suleymanova was buried in her native village of Alkhan-Yurt, ‘outside the cemetery, on the edge of the road’. Isteev stressed that the information about the place of burial came from people who could have obtained it from relatives or persons close to the family.
According to Isteev, Suleymanova may have been killed in November 2023 on the orders of MP Adam Delimkhanov, a close associate of Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov.
Later, NC SOS noted that they could not regard the reports of Delimkhanov’s involvement as reliable, saying that they did not know where their sources obtained any information about his involvement in Suleymanova’s disappearance.
At the same time, the rights group also pointed out that reports of Delimkhanov’s involvement are supported by the regular practice of interference by the Chechen authorities and security forces in the fate of women trying to escape domestic abuse.
Earlier, Delimkhanov refused to take part in the investigation into Suleymanova’s disappearance, citing his lack of authority to do so, while at the same time taking part in the pursuit of another runaway woman, Lia Zaurbekova.
Opposition activists have also claimed that Delimkhanov may have been involved in the killing of Salman Tepsurkaev — a moderator of the Telegram channel 1ADAT chat, who was abducted by security forces.
Elizaveta Chukharova
