Italian media sources have reported that a male Chechen refugee was arrested in Italy and is at risk of being extradited from Italy to Russia.

According to the reports, on the night of October 9, Rinat Ibraev, born in 1982, along with his wife Khava Abubakarovna Bantaeva, born in 1988, as well as their three children, aged 1, 3 and 5 were arrested in the town of Tarvios, within Udino by Italian police while heading to the border of Italy and Austria by car. He was in Italy for a family visit, and was going to attend another meeting in Austria. Italian police said that there is an international arrest warrant by Interpol for Rinat Ibraev, because allegedly he killed a Russian police officer in Russian occupied Chechnya. Also, it was stated that police did not find any illegal materials in his car. On the second day of detention, Rinat’s wife and children were released. However, Rinat is still in custody in a prison in Tolmezzo. It is expected that the Court of Appeals in Trieste will decide on his extradition in the next few days.

The website Ichkeria.info has published a letter from the Organization of Former Prisoners of Russian Filtration Camps from the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (OUFKL-ChRI) on the arrest of Rinat Ibraev. According to the letter, Rinat Ibraev is a political refugee from the Russian occupied Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and lives in Nice, France. He had been arrested in Italy earlier, but he was released after a request from French authorities. The claims against Renat are totally fabricated. In fact, he and his brother Yunus were formerly resistance fighters against the Russian invaders in his homeland, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. For this reason, Russians and their local collaborators have persecuted the Ibraev family since 2005. On new year’s eve 2007, Yunus Ibraev was assassinated by Russians in Chechnya and the same night, Renat’s parents were taken to the FSB building, where they were subjected to beating and horrible torture, while FSB agents demanded information about Rinat’s location. But this wasn’t the only brutal act against the family. Rinat’s parents have been repeatedly subject to abductions and torture. Thus they have been forced to leave the Russian occupied Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Now relatives of Rinat are worrying about his situation because if Italy passes Renat to the bloody hands of Russia, his life will be in real danger, and it is highly possible that he will be killed.

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