Two months after his deportation from France, a Chechen jailed in Russia

The ECHR had called on France not to cross the red line in terms of expulsions.

Namely: do not take into account the risks incurred by the individual returned to his country.

On this issue, the case of Chechen Magomed Gadaev alerted human rights associations.

The Russian NGO Memorial affirms this Thursday that this national recently expelled from France to Russia was sentenced there to one and a half years in prison.

To read also Expulsions of Chechens: "The community is terrified"

Magomed Gadaev, an opponent of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, was expelled on April 9, the French Interior Ministry assuring that the person had "long-standing links with the Islamist movement and international jihad".

But this expulsion was strongly condemned by human rights organizations, arguing that Magomed Gadaev risked being tortured or even illegally executed in Chechnya.

Moreover, media had reported that the latter had been kidnapped shortly after his arrival on Russian soil.

"He had no weapon"

An official of the Memorial NGO, Oleg Orlov, claims to have had confirmation, via an anonymous informant in Chechnya, that Magomed Gadaev had been sentenced to one and a half years of detention for illegal possession of weapons. The independent newspaper Novaïa Gazeta confirmed to his wife, who is not identified, that Magomed Gadaev was indeed sentenced to such a sentence. “I don't know how it happened, our lawyer wasn't there,” she said.

Contacted, an official of the court of the Chechen city of Atchkhoï-Martan refused to confirm this conviction, without reversing it. “The court decision has not yet entered into force,” he assures us. According to Memorial, Magomed Gadaev has 10 days to appeal before the conviction is upheld. Before the trial, the defendant twice announced that he was going without the services of independent lawyers sent to defend him, according to the NGO. "It is obvious that he was threatened and that they promised him a minimum sentence", if he refused to be defended, affirms Oleg Orlov. “One and a half for possession of a weapon is not much, but he did nothing,” he continued.

The Chechen authorities claim to have found a weapon belonging to Magomed Gadaev "in the attic of his father's house" in Chechnya, said Oleg Orlov. "He had no weapon, it had been a long time since he was in Russia," says Oleg Orlov, denouncing a "falsification". Magomed Gadaev obtained refugee status in Poland in 2010, then went to France in 2011 where he was "S-stuck" upon his arrival, "because of his military past" according to his lawyer in France.