Khusen Gadamauri, a Chechen asylum-seeker in Germany, who had been extradited to Russia in 2017, was killed by Russian security services during a ‘counter-terrorism’ operation at the beginning of the month, a German human rights activist told OC Media. 

German-Caucasian Friendship Society Head Ekkehard Maas told OC Media he was informed of the death by Gadamauri’s relatives on 25 August. 

A native of the Chechen Republic, Khusen Gadamauri was living in Germany and had applied for political asylum, but was extradited to Russia in March 2017.

The Russian authorities put Gadamauri on an Interpol wanted list in February 2016. According to Russian security officials, between 2012 and 2014, while in the Republic of Ingushetia he aided ‘illegal armed groups’. 

‘Counter-terrorism operation’ 

On 6 August, Russian security forces undertook a ‘counter-terrorism operation’ in the village of Sagopshi and the city of Nazran, both located in Ingushetia. During the operation security forces killed two people, and detained one person. 

The names of those killed and that of the detained individual have not yet been disclosed by Russian officials. 

The Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Republic of Ingushetia has refused to comment if one of the individuals killed on 6 August was Khusen Gadamauri.

‘I cannot confirm or deny this information’, a local FSB officer on duty told OC Media. The press service of the FSB has not responded to OC Media's calls.

Ekkehard Maas, who deals with Caucasian refugees in Germany, told OC Media that he had warned German authorities about the danger to Gadamauri's life in Russia.

‘Despite numerous appeals to the courts, the prosecutor's office and the department of the Federal Chancellor about the danger threatening him in Russia, and the inhuman treatment, he was deported to Russia’, Maas said. ‘Unfortunately, this often happens that despite our objections, the Chechens seeking asylum are extradited to Russia, and there they are killed’.