A Chechen woman who escaped from the North Caucasus republic to neighbouring Georgia and then went home under unclear circumstances, has died and been buried within days of her return, human rights organisation North Caucasus SOS (NC SOS) reported on Thursday.
Aliya Ozdamirova, 33, who left Chechnya after receiving threats, was either tricked into returning or was forcibly removed from Georgia on Sunday, the human rights group reported, adding that her funeral was held in Chechnya on Wednesday.
Ozdamirova left Chechnya on 20 October in fear of her relatives, who, she said, had threatened her due to her sexual orientation, NC SOS continued, noting that she had been planning to leave Georgia to a safer country on Saturday after an unnamed “lawyer friend” had told her that she was on an international wanted list for “financing terrorism”.
However, Ozdamirova changed her mind after talking to an uncle, who assured her that he could only arrange for her to safely leave Georgia at a later date, despite supporters having told her that this was likely to be a trap.
Ozdamirova crossed the land border back into Russia the following day and died in mysterious circumstances. NC SOS believes that she may have been the victim of an “honour killing”.
Ozdamirova left Chechnya the day another Chechen woman, Aishat Baymuradova, who had fled to Armenia to escape domestic violence was found dead in the capital Yerevan, believed to have been strangled.
In another prominent case, Seda Suleymanova, a Chechen woman who left her family and chose to live independently in St. Petersburg, was returned to Chechnya against her will in August 2023 with the help of the police after relatives tracked her down. She is now missing and presumed dead.