23 July 2024
Russian police have interrogated and confiscated the phones of the parents of a Circassian independence activist in Karachay–Cherkessia after raiding their home.
On 19 July, Kase Kik who is currently based in the US, stated that the police in Karachay–Cherkessia conducted a search of his parents’ residence, confiscating their phones in a move he called ‘illegal and unauthorised’.
Kik said the search was carried out by the FSB and the local Interior Ministry’s Centre for Combating Extremism.
‘While earlier, before the war, FSB officers still formally observed the appearance of compliance with the procedural law, now they have thrown away all these formalities and act like bandits in uniform’, he told OC Media.
Kik added that his parents were not provided with official documents confirming the search, the confiscation of his belongings, or the confiscation of their phones.
‘Strong psychological pressure was applied, which cannot be called anything other than torture’, Kik said.
He added that he viewed the raid as a form of ‘intimidation’ against other activists or people who sympathise with his activities.
Kik is the founder of the Circassian Congress and a member of the Council of United Circassia. The Council was founded with the stated aim of working ‘towards the goal of creating an independent state structure in the homeland of Circassia’.
The Council has also recently appealed to several countries to recognise the Russian Empire’s 19th century genocide and mass deportation of Circassians from the North Caucasus.
‘Through psychological torture of relatives and close people, pressure and blackmail are being applied on me and on [other] activists. I am not the first and I will not be the last in this series. We can observe and remember a huge number of such examples’, he told OC Media.
Kik was previously detained on charges of petty hooliganism in Cherkessk in May 2022 after requesting a Ukrainian song at a karaoke bar.
He claims the authorities tortured and beat him to force him to confess that he had ties with Ukraine, Turkey, the US, and opposition movements in Russia.
In April, the Circassian Congress joined other Circassian organisations in an appeal calling on Circassians not join Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In 2023, Karachay–Cherkessia’s Interior Ministry accused Kik of discrediting the Russian army and demanded that he be brought to justice. The case was dismissed by the Cherkessk City Court, citing an expired three-month deadline for his arrest warrant.
