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Family members of a dissident from Chechnya who was murdered in Vienna, have claimed responsibility for his killing in a video confession that has been described as being made under duress.
The blogger Mamikhan Umarov, 43, was shot dead on July 4 in the Austrian capital. He was a vocal critic on YouTube of the Russian republic's leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, who is accused by international groups of human rights abuses.
Austrian police have arrested two men of Chechen origin in connection with the murder of Umarov, the third dissident from the Russian North Caucasus republic to be killed in Europe over the last 12 months.
In a video posted on Instagram, 10 male relatives of Umarov stood together and took turns making statements in Chechen in which they said they carried out the killing to stop his "unforgivable insults" of the Chechen people, according to a translation by the website Caucasian Knot.
The men said they were unable to "control their fugitive relative" and so had to stop him according to the ancient Chechen customs "to remove the stigma from their family."
The family apologized to Kadyrov and "repented before all Chechens for the unforgivable insults he had inflicted on the whole people."
"We wholeheartedly ask forgiveness from the people of the republic," one of the men said.
However a senior Chechen figure in Austria, where Umarov had been granted asylum after fleeing the southern Russian republic in 2005, said the confession appeared forced.
Khusein Iskhanov, the head of the Chechen separatist diaspora group the Cultural Association of Ichkeria in Austria told the Caucasian Knot: "It's hard to imagine more absurd statements. The relatives were forced to take the blame for the murder of the blogger.
"The authorities are trying to expose the political murder as some sort of domestic conflict," he added.
Umarov was widely known online as "Anzor from Vienna" and would post foul-mouthed tirades against Kadyrov on YouTube. He was shot near a shopping center in Vienna.
There are concerns over the safety of Chechen dissidents living in Europe who fled Chechnya after falling foul of Kadyrov.
In a #Vienna suburb, #Austria, unidentified individual(s) killed a political asylum seeker Mamikhan Umarov, who was a prominent critic of #Chechnya head Kadyrov. These types of assassinations, arranged from #Russia, continue across #Europe unchallenged:https://t.co/jga2BWYD9y
— Alex Kokcharov (@AlexKokcharov) July 5, 2020
The death of Umarov was the third in Europe in recent months of Kadrov's critics, raising suspicions over Kadyrov.
Imran Aliyev, a 44-year-old blogger, was found dead in a hotel room in Lille, France, in January after being stabbed more than 130 times.
In August 2019, an ethnic Chechen and Georgian national, Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, was shot dead in Berlin, Radio Free Europe reported.
A fourth Chechen dissident, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, managed to fight off an attacker in his apartment in Sweden earlier this year.
This week, the U.S. State Department slapped more sanctions on Kadyrov "for numerous gross violations of human rights," which included torture and extrajudicial killings. Rights groups have also linked Kadyrov to horrific abuses against LGBTQ people.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that the U.S. wanted to "ensure accountability for those who engage in this abhorrent behavior." Kadyrov hit back in a defiant post on his Telegram channel, saying, "Pompeo, we accept the fight! This is going to be interesting!" as he was pictured holding two guns.
About the writer
Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. His focus is Russia and Ukraine, in particular ... Read more