A woman who had fled Chechnya following death threats from her family has been forcibly returned to her home, Chechnyas human rights commissioner said late Tuesday.Seda Suleimanova fled the Muslim-majority region in October 2022 with the help of the human rights group SK SOS after her family warned that she could be killed in an "honor killing" for refusing to be married off to a man.Police accompanied by Chechen nationals in plainclothes detained Suleimanova in St.
Petersburg last Wednesday as part of a criminal case into alleged jewelry theft in Chechnya.She was transferred to the republic of Chechnya, where she was interrogated as a witness and then handed over to her family, SK SOSsaid Friday.Mansur Soltaev, Chechnyas human rights ombudsman, late Tuesdaypublished a photograph of the 26-year-old Suleimanova sitting in a long dress and headscarf next to him.She feels good.
Her rights are not being violated and shes not harassed, Soltaev said on the Telegram messaging app.I made sure during the conversation that shes not threatened by anything, shes safe, he continued, adding that he also spoke with Suleimanovas relatives.Suleimanovas fiance Stanislav Kudryavtsev, who lived with her in St.
Petersburg, told human rights group SK SOS that she looks depressed in the photograph, while also noting that she appeared to have a large bruise on her neck.Chechnyas strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov has sought to impose Islamic values in his conservative region despite Russias status as a secular country.
He is also accused by international rights groups of overseeing widespread human rights abuses.