Witnesses ignored the hearing in the Kardashov murder case.

The Gudermes City Court is hearing the case of Grozny resident Said-Magomed Omarov, accused of murdering Dagestani pharmacist Alexei Kardashov, after his guilty verdict was overturned for the second time. Witnesses failed to appear at the final hearing, and the court is insisting on their forced appearance.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," in November 2024, the Supreme Court of Chechnya refused to uphold the appeal of Grozny resident Said-Magomed Omarov, convicted of murdering Dagestani resident Alexei Kardashov. In 2023, the Nozhai-Yurt District Court found Said-Magomed Omarov guilty of the murder of Dagestani pharmacist Alexei Kardashov and sentenced him to eight years and two months in a maximum-security penal colony. Previously, in 2020, a court sentenced Omarov to nine years in prison for Kardashov's murder and the theft of his car. This sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court of Chechnya. The victim's mother stated that Said-Magomed Omarov participated in her son's kidnapping, but not in the murder. Sentencing Omarov will allow the killers to escape responsibility, she pointed out.

On May 5, a hearing in the case against Said-Magomed Omarov was held in the Gudermes City Court.

"Omarov's wife's testimony was read out, stating that, based on Omarov's parents' testimony, she knew that police officers from Dagestan had come for him and wanted to pick him up from the Leninsky police station. But the Chechen police refused. The testimony also stated that Omarov had previously been detained by police, most recently in September 2017. He was gone for five days and returned covered in bruises," a representative of the Team Against Torture* told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to her, the witnesses did not appear in court.

"That's why this testimony from the criminal case was read out, and no one was questioned again in court. The court reiterated its decision on the need for the forced production of witnesses. The victim's side did not file any motions. The next hearing is on May 19," a representative of the CPT* reported.

On June 30, 2025, the Fifth Cassation Court returned Omarov's case to the Supreme Court of Chechnya for a new trial, extending his pretrial detention. The reason for the overturning of the decision was that Judge Vagapov, who heard the appeal in the Supreme Court of Chechnya the first time, also participated in the appeal hearing, according to case materials posted on the court's website.

On September 3, 2025, the Supreme Court of Chechnya overturned the verdict of the Nozhai-Yurt District Court, sending the case back to the Gudermes City Court for a new trial, according to materials on the court's website.

Alexei Kardashov, who owned a pharmacy in Khasavyurt, left home on September 14, 2017, and never returned. His body has still not been found. Investigators believe that National Guard officers Bekkhan Abdurashidov and Aslan Doukayev took Kardashov to Chechnya and left him with Said-Magomed Omarov, who killed Kardashov during an argument. The prosecution of Abdurashidov and Doukaev was based on Omarov's testimony during the investigation in Dagestan. However, after the case was transferred to Chechnya, he signed a confession.

In the summer of 2023, the Gudermes City Court of Chechnya found former Rosgvardiya officers Bekkhan Abdurashidov and Aslan Doukaev guilty of illegally detaining pharmacy manager Alexei Kardashov. They were sentenced to two years' probation for abuse of office. This sentence was overturned on appeal, and in June 2024, the Sheikh Mansurovsky Court dismissed the case against Abdurashidov and Doukaev due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution.

The Omarov case was separated from the security forces' case in order to conceal the true circumstances of Kardashov's murder, human rights activist Dmitry Piskunov stated in 2020. "Most of the evidence of the guilt of the Chechen security forces was simply transferred to a separate criminal case against Omarov so that we could not refer to this evidence in the trial... It has reached the point of ridiculousness: Omarov's case now contains 20 volumes, while the case of the security forces only contains six. Yes, Omarov was involved in a crime, but not the one for which he was found guilty by the court," Piskunov told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

* added to the Russian Ministry of Justice's register of foreign agents.

** Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.