Dick Marty, the special rapporteur of European Council, appeared as an expert witness during the Israilov murder trial in Vienna on Tuesday, November 23rd.

The rapporteur of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly on Human Rights in North Caucasus, Dick Marty, visited Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Dagestan and personally met the puppet Kadyrov in March of 2010.

According to the Austrian newspaper OE24, “He reminds me exactly of the Roman emperors,” said Mr. Marty in the Vienna State Criminal Court.

“He lives in a place where golden lions stand up at the entrance. He has a private zoo with a tiger which stands on the red list of WWF (World Wildlife Fund). He has a very strange personality. He behaves very strangely even when just eating something on the table. He always smiles, but absolutely shows no compassion. When I asked him about his comments on the accusations against himself pertaining to his participation in torture, Kadyrov just smiled and said: ‘Allah will ensure an end for these traitors that they deserve’,” said Mr. Marty.

“He has no respect for human rights organizations like Memorial, and describes them as traitors. Kadyrov also considers the people, who ran away to other countries because of political or social reasons, as traitors,” said Mr. Marty.

Dick Marty also pointed out that he received a large amount of reports from Chechens who live in Europe, who told him about their callings to go back Chechnya. “First, they rather kindly invite people to return, but if their invitation is rejected, then they become very ridiculous. Mostly, they threaten the refugees…,” said Mr. Marty.

Mr. Marty specifically mentioned a case which has occurred in Chechnya. According to the story, an older woman was taken hostage and was told to have her son come back home. When her son came back to Chechnya, he was immediately abducted and then murdered.

“The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) have found in no less than 160 cases, a disregard for the right to life and the prohibition of torture in Chechnya. Whoever dares to oppose Kadyrov, his life is immediately under risk. There are several documented cases where police [Kadyrovites] systematically torture people.” said Marty. “If these people die while being tortured, then the police declare that the people were ‘killed in a firefight’ and had a connection to the underground movement,” said Mr. Marty.

The expert witness described Chechnya as state where there exists “systematic impunity”. “Democracy, separation of powers and human rights are ‘foreign words’. Now Kadyrov has become a problem for Russia because of his unpredictability, but Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is not strong enough to replace Kadyrov because Kadyrov has been used by Vladimir Putin,” said Mr. Marty.

Dick Marty explained one of his conversations with a witness, “whose name I cannot disclose under any circumstances, because that would mean that he would immediately be in danger.” The witness told him that when Israilov was in Austria, he was called one day by Kadyrov himself. The Russian puppet Kadyrov informed Israilov that he had taken Israilov’s father and other relatives hostage and would only free them if Israilov come back home.

*Text was translated by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco