A Chechen dissident blogger living in Sweden who it was claimed earlier this week had been murdered is reportedly still alive, according to Chechen government in exile.
“Tumso Abdurakhmanov is alive and is under the protection of the Swedish police,” news website Kavkaz.Realii, an affiliate of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, quoted the government-in-exile’s press officer as saying.
The internationally unrecognized government of the former Chechen republic of Ichkeria, whose members opposed the Kremlin during the two wars in the North Caucasus republic, has been based abroad since 2000.
The Swedish authorities have not commented on the latest reports about the 36-year-old blogger, nor have they confirmed or denied the initial reports of his murder.
A vocal critic of Chechnya’s strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov, Abdurakhmanov, who has been based in Sweden since 2019, went missing a week prior to his death being reported by 1ADAT.
Even if confirmed untrue, the claims were hardly outlandish — Abdurakhmanov survived a hammer attack in 2020 that he claimed was ordered from inside Russia.
A Swedish court later sentenced two people to 10 years and eight years in prison for their part in Abdurakhmanov’s attempted murder.