Protests have been held in several European cities in con­nec­tion with the murder in Berlin of former Chechen inde­pen­dence fighter and Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khang­oshvili.

Khang­oshvili, 40, was shot dead on 23 August in the Kleiner Tier­garten park in Berlin, as he was on his way to the mosque. Members of his family claim that Russian intel­li­gence agencies may be involved in the murder. 

Khang­oshvili, who was wanted by the Russian author­i­ties on terrorism charges, had survived earlier his assas­si­na­tion attempts.

He had lived in Germany, where he was seeking asylum, for the past two years. His appli­ca­tion was refused by the migration service but he was in the process of appealing the decision.

VAYFOND, a Sweeden-based Chechen charity and human rights group, announced a protest campaign on 27 August calling for an objective and speedy inves­ti­ga­tion into the murder and calling on Chechens living in Europe and sup­port­ers to par­tic­i­pate.

Between 31 August–4 September, a protest took place outside the Russian Embassy in Germany, a single-person picket outside the German Embassy in the Nether­lands, as well as two protests organised by VAYFOND in Berlin and Stockholm.

VAYFOND’s Executive Director, Amina Sadu­laye­va, told OC Media that around 200 people gathered in Berlin on 4 September and around 50 attended the protest outside the German Embassy in Sweden.

She said that pro­test­ers held posters calling for the pro­tec­tion of the life and rights of refugees.

Artyom Khachatu­ryants, an activist who held the single-person picket outside the German Embassy in the Nether­lands on 2 September, called on the German author­i­ties to conduct an honest and fair inves­ti­ga­tion. He demanded that European countries stop expelling Chechens, who he said needed pro­tec­tion.

‘The German author­i­ties could have done a lot to keep Zelimkhan Khang­oshvili alive today. They could have provided him with the status of a political refugee, which, as we all see with bitter obvi­ous­ness, he clearly needed’, he said.

French Chechen diaspora group Bart Marsho is organ­is­ing a protest outside the German embassy in Paris on 7 September with similar demands.

‘Suspicious timing’

‘This is a great deal of support,’ Zurab Khang­oshvili, Zelimkhan’s brother, told OC Media.

‘Espe­cial­ly in Georgia, local Chechens and even Georgians expressed their sympathy. A lot of people came to the funeral whom I don’t even know’, he said.

Zurab lamented that his two sons and sister-in-law were refused asylum in Sweden.

‘My sons were detained and [the author­i­ties] are preparing to deport them. I don’t under­stand why the Migration Service doesn’t take into account the danger that threatens us’, he said.

He said that the officials had not asked him whether he was in danger or whether he needed pro­tec­tion following his brother’s murder.

‘There was no reaction at all’, said Khang­oshvili.

He said that an inves­ti­ga­tor had promised to tell them ‘every­thing [about the murder inves­ti­ga­tion] that wouldn’t interfere with the inves­ti­ga­tion’.

On 4 September, VAYFOND announced that their rep­re­sen­ta­tive in Germany, Muhammad Abdu­rakhmanov, had also been refused asylum.

The German Supreme Admin­is­tra­tive Court ruled that Abdu­rakhmanov could live safely in Russia, and ordered him to leave the country within 30 days.

Chechnya’s Speaker of Par­lia­ment, Magomed Daudov, has declared a vendetta against Abdurakhmanov’s brother, popular Chechen blogger Tumso Abdu­rakhmanov.

VAYFOND’s chair, Mansur Sadulayev, told OC Media that the vendetta meant that all the men in Tumso’s family would be per­se­cut­ed.

Sadulayev also cast suspicion on the timing of the court’s decision.

‘Soon after the murder of Khang­oshvili, the rep­re­sen­ta­tive of our organ­i­sa­tion in Germany, who convened a rally in Berlin, on the day of the rally, received a letter rejecting his asylum appli­ca­tion and an order to leave the country’, he said.

‘The refusal [to grant asylum] to Muhammad is a gross violation of human and refugee rights’, he said.

Dissident refugees ‘safe in Russia’

According to Sadulayev, whose group assists Chechen refugees seeking asylum, pro­tect­ing refugees who are wanted by Russia is expensive, and includes paying for the services of lawyers and trans­lat­ing huge numbers of documents into English to submit to Interpol.

‘In countries where human rights are ignored by the author­i­ties,’ Sadulaev said, ‘even expensive lawyers cannot help.’

He said that the UN Committee against Torture ruled in 2018 that dissident refugees and former resis­tance members could not find pro­tec­tion in Russia, but that some European countries did not abide by this ruling.

According to him, such states argued that ‘outside Chechnya, but within Russia, sup­port­ers of Ichkeria [the self-pro­claimed inde­pen­dent Chechen republic] can be safe.’

He said that the final word of the ECHR or the UN could change the fate of appli­cants for the better, but that this did not always work. Sadulayev said that in recent years it had become increas­ing­ly difficult for refugees from Russia to find justice, not only in the courts of indi­vid­ual countries but also in inter­na­tion­al instances.