Human rights activists are alarmed by the lack of information about the fate of Belkisa Mintsayeva.

The lack of contact with Belkisa Mintsayeva, detained in Chechnya, and the lack of information about her procedural status for three weeks pose a serious threat. Mintsayeva's lawyer should report the threats and denial of access to her client to the Investigative Committee and appeal to the federal ombudsman, the human rights activist and lawyer believe.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," on April 14, Lidiya Mikhalchenko, head of the "Motherless Caucasus" human rights project, reported that security forces detained 33-year-old Belkisa Mintsayeva "without any grounds" in the Nadterechny District of Chechnya. According to the human rights activist, Mintsayeva's children are with her ex-husband. According to Mikhalchenko, before her arrest, Mintsaeva arrived in Chechnya under pressure from security forces, who threatened to send her brother to the SVO. On April 24, activists reported that there was no contact with Mintsaeva, she had not been charged, and no lawyer had been provided. According to the organization "Caucasus Without a Mother," Mintsaeva has been under arrest in a Chechen police station for over 20 days; lawyers are not allowed to see her and are being intimidated.

Such a long-term deprivation of liberty without any legal basis, as in the case of Belkisa Mintsaeva, cannot be legal, emphasized Svetlana Gannushkina, chair of the Civic Assistance Committee*.

"If there is no arrest report, no case for which she was detained, no court that sentenced her to, for example, administrative arrest, then detention is possible for a maximum of 48 hours, extendable to 72. Then there must be a court decision on this matter. Of course, it is necessary to understand her specific location. Lawyers can contact the unit that detained her or the unit where she was located, because this is their territory, and they are also obligated to investigate what is happening on their territory and must be aware of such events," the human rights activist explained.

A lawyer has the right to contact any government agency, whether law enforcement, investigative, or judicial. Obstructing lawyers from obtaining information about their client is a serious violation, she pointed out.

“If no action is taken locally, he can appeal to a higher authority. A lawyer can also contact the Chechen Human Rights Commissioner, but I call him the Chechen Human Rights Commissioner for one person. It’s better to call [Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana] Moskalkova’s hotline directly; I know of cases where she has helped. Someone has been missing for three weeks; that’s already an emergency situation,” Gannushkina* noted.

In her opinion, in the event of threats from security forces, a lawyer can record them, either overtly or covertly. However, the human rights activist acknowledged that lawyers, especially in Chechnya, are under pressure.

“This has become a high-risk job; unfortunately, a lawyer could get into trouble. Threats to a lawyer can be recorded, and conversations can be secretly recorded. There are two options: you can report it to law enforcement, but they may deem such a recording inadmissible evidence and not consider it, or you can publish it, which could have corresponding consequences. Or you can directly say, ‘I'm recording, I want to record our conversation.’ It would be good to have another person nearby, another lawyer, who can confirm the fact of intimidation with witness testimony,” Gannushkina* explained.

She described the situation with the denial of access and intimidation of lawyers as “very dangerous.” “Not only for the people to whom this happens, but for the country as a whole. This is a collapse of the law enforcement system. This cannot but affect the position of the authorities themselves,” the human rights activist noted.

Regarding the children's whereabouts, it is possible to appeal to the courts and children's rights ombudsmen, but the effectiveness of these measures is questionable. "Unfortunately, we receive strange responses, for example: 'That's just the way things are done there.' We even had a court in Moscow rule that the mother shouldn't give up the child, despite the father being dead. And the grandfather took the children, who had come to the dacha for the holidays, and didn't give them back. When the mother filed a lawsuit, even in more vegetarian times, the court ruled that the children should be raised in the traditions of their father," Gannushkina* said.

Cases of coercion into signing contracts with the Ministry of Defense are known, although sometimes the victims themselves don't understand what they're doing. The human rights activist was unable to name any ways to appeal this. "I can't imagine how this could be challenged in Chechnya—Kadyrov gains Putin's favor by supplying him with virtually unlimited cannon fodder. I'm also unaware of any successful appeals in other regions," concluded Svetlana Gannushkina*.

Lawyer Timofey Shirokov has encountered cases in which clients were hidden from their defense attorneys at police stations. "They cite some kind of restricted access status or say they need permission from management, but there's no management. They also say, 'He was just here, they took him away, check with them,' they're stalling. And sometimes they simply say, 'We're 'working' with the detainee, the detectives will do their work, and then we can see you,'" he said. He said the standard measure for a lawyer who's denied access to their client is to contact the Internal Security Directorate. "You call them, report the situation, and they're obligated to respond. You call the duty officer, if he's at the local station, or you call the police department's duty unit, report the situation, and demand that the violation of the law be corrected. Recordings are kept, everything is recorded, and they determine what's going on there." "In my experience, it wasn't possible to gain immediate access, but I was able to find out where the client was," Shirokov explained.

If we're talking about a system of denying access to a client, the lawyer can file complaints under the departmental law and with the prosecutor's office. "You can also appeal to the court, but we understand that the court has flexible review deadlines. The court, naturally, won't consider the lawyer's complaint the next day. But in the case of a categorical refusal to allow access or threats to the lawyer, you can demand the initiation of a criminal case by filing a complaint with the Investigative Committee for abuse of office," Shirokov said.

Such a prolonged absence of information about Mintsayeva's fate and her procedural status could be considered unlawful deprivation of liberty.

"If they 'forced' someone through administrative arrest—for example, gave them 10 days and simply didn't inform you, but instead piled on paperwork—then no, although that is at the very least abuse of office." Or it could be negligence, because the person is deprived of the right to a defense. But if they simply detain her without formal grounds, then it's illegal deprivation of liberty or kidnapping," the lawyer emphasized.

In his opinion, any recording of threats against a lawyer is legal for the protection of rights. "Police officers can be recorded – they are public figures, employees, not private individuals. They are on duty. I see no prohibitions against recording them," Shirokov noted.

The lawyer confirmed that threats of mobilization and coercion into signing a military contract are difficult to prove. "Illegal mobilization or blackmail are just as difficult to prove as torture." “Employees cover for each other,” he concluded.

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** The activities of Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) are banned in Russia.