Movlaev asked the European Parliament for support
Chechnya native Mansur Movlaev addressed members of the European Parliament. He asked them to record appeals to the Kazakh authorities calling on them to cancel his extradition to Russia.
As reported by Kavkazsky Knot, on May 18, a court upheld the decision on Mansur Movlaev's arrest in Kazakhstan. This exhausted the legal avenues for appealing the arrest of the Chechen native.
In May 2025, Mansur Movlaev, who had been placed on the wanted list by the Shali District Department of Chechnya, was detained in Kazakhstan and placed under extradition arrest. On May 21, he received asylum seeker status, granting him temporary protection from being sent to Russia. At the end of December 2025, the Kazakh authorities refused to grant Mansur Movlaev refugee status. On January 30, it became known that the Prosecutor General's Office of Kazakhstan had decided to extradite him to Russian security forces. The defense appealed this decision. In February, the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan suspended the enforcement of the decision to extradite Movlaev pending the final review of his asylum application. Human rights defenders and activists considered interconnected this decision and Movlaev's appeal to the UN Human Rights Committee, which in February called on the Kazakh authorities to suspend Movlaev's extradition pending the review of this appeal. On May 8, a court in Almaty extended the extradition arrest by two months - until July. Neither Movlaev nor his lawyers were present at the hearing.
"My name is Mansur Movlaev. I am a Chechen human rights activist, currently under arrest in Kazakhstan for extradition purposes, and I face extradition to the Russian Federation, to the Chechen Republic—the very place I fled to save my life," reads his appeal, which was published by the free_mansour_movlaev support group on Instagram*.
According to him, the UN Human Rights Committee has already adopted interim measures and officially called on Kazakhstan not to extradite him while his complaint is being considered. Despite this, he remains in custody and is just one step away from extradition – and the very real risk of torture and extrajudicial execution.
These dangers were also noted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Russia, Mariana Katsarova, in her official reports on persecution in Chechnya, Movlaev emphasized.
In addition to the UN Human Rights Committee, UN Special Rapporteur on Russia Mariana Katsarova also called for Movlaev's non-extradition until his case is considered by the committee, Movlaev's lawyer said. "She prepared a report in which she noted that he should not be extradited due to the risk of torture," she noted.
"I humbly ask you, distinguished members of the European Parliament, to record a short public video message to the Kazakh authorities calling on them to comply with international law, their human rights obligations, and the interim measures adopted by the UN Human Rights Committee," the statement reads.
He claims that even a short video message could help save his life. "Please don't remain silent," Mansur Movlayev concluded.
Movlayev was born in 1995 in Shali. He told his lawyers that while studying at university, he helped the Chechen opposition movement "Adat" (an organization designated as extremist and banned in Russia) with information about people abducted by Kadyrov's men. "He was persecuted for this active position," his lawyer, Rena Kerimova, told Kursiv Media.
In 2022, Movlaev was detained by security forces in Chechnya and held in an illegal prison. After escaping, he managed to reach Kyrgyzstan in January 2023. In August 2023, security forces in Kyrgyzstan detained Movlaev, who was wanted in Russia for financing extremist activity. A court in Bishkek sentenced Movlaev to six months in prison and subsequent deportation from the country. On November 20, 2023, Movlaev was released, but the decision to deport him remained in effect, and he voluntarily left Kyrgyzstan to avoid being sent home.
Caucasian Knot publishes materials about human rights violations in Chechnya, Kadyrov's attacks on the opposition, and his fight against dissent in the republic on the thematic page "Dissent in Chechnya".