Zarema Musaeva, the mother of prominent Chechen human rights lawyer and activist Abubakar Yangulbaev, has been sentenced to 5.5 years in prison, the Committee Against Torture rights group reportedTuesday.A judge at a local court in Grozny, the capital of Russias North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, found Musaeva guilty of assaulting the authorities and fraud accusations she strongly denied.Abubakar Yangulbaev said the sentence was "equal to the death penalty" given the state of his mother's health.Earlier Tuesday, Musaevas lawyer Alexander Nemov and prominent journalist Yelena Milashina, who arrived in the Chechen capital to attend the hearing, were hospitalized after being badly beaten on their way from the local airport.Musaeva, 53, was violently detained by Chechen law enforcement in January 2022, in the familys apartment in the city of Nizhny Novgorod some 420 kilometers east of Moscow.Chechen security officers had also attempted to detain Musaevas husband, the retired federal judge Saydi Yangulbaev, but were unable to arrest him due to his judicial immunity.Musaeva has been held in a pre-trial detention center in Grozny since her detention.
Abubakar Yangulabev and human rights groups repeatedly sounded the alarm about her deteriorating health as authorities denied Musaeva access to adequate medical care.Abubakar Yangulbaev and his brothers, Baysangur and Ibragim, are vocal critics of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and are based outside the country.Human rights activists have linked Musaevas arrest to her sons activism.Abubakar Yangulbaev in January publicly offered to surrender himself to Kadyrov in exchange for his mothers release.Baysangur and Ibragim Yangulbaev were added to the federal list of terrorists and extremists in November 2022.