Russian authorities have charged prominent Chechen human rights lawyer and activist Abubakar Yangulbaev with “calls for terrorism,” the Ostorozhno Novosti news outlet reported Friday.
Chechen law enforcement officials opened the charges in response to a post made by Yangulbaev on the Telegram messaging app last year, according to unnamed sources cited by the outlet.
The post, which has since been deleted, expressed hope that “TNT would explode on May 9, 2022, like it did on May 9, 2004,” a reference to the day when Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s father and predecessor Akhmat Kadyrov was assassinated in a bomb attack.
Yangulbaev told The Moscow Times he was not yet aware of any criminal charges against him.
“I haven’t been handed or mailed any documents, and this information [about the charges] is from open sources,” he said.
But he added: “In general, with any post on my social media accounts, Chechen security services can carry out their own investigations, with their own experts, and they will say ‘yes, this is terrorism and grounds for a criminal case’.”
The human rights lawyer, together with his brothers Ibrahim and Baysangur, is a vocal critic of Kadyrov.
Their mother Zarema Musraeva was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison last month for fraud and assaulting the authorities — accusations she strongly denied.
Yangulbaev has continued his human rights work abroad since fleeing Russia in 2021.
He was detained in 2020 and released after police searched his apartment, confiscated his electronic devices and questioned him.
Kadyrov’s close ally, the lower-house State Duma deputy Adam Delimkhanov, has threatened to “cut off the heads” of the Yangulbaev family.