The authorities of Belarus announced on 8 June that they intend to extradite Chechen sportsman and MMA fighter Murad Amriyev to Russia. Amriyev was detained by Belarusian border guards on 7 June while trying to cross from Russia.

Murad Amriyev, who on 6 June managed to secretly flee from a police station in the Bryansk Oblast in Russia, was detained again 24 hours later by Belarusian law enforcement.

‘On 7 June at 17.24 a Toyota car with Russian plates carrying Murad Amriyev was stopped at the Vesyalouka checkpoint between Belarus and Ukraine. During the border control it was established that Amriyev was included in the interstate wanted list on suspicion of committing the crime (…) of using a forged document’, Belarusian news website tut.by quoted the State Border Committee of Belarus.

Amriyev has been placed in a temporary detention centre in the Belarusian town of Dobrush. From there, he is to be transferred to Russian police in Bryansk, a representative of the Homel Regional Executive Committee, Yury Pilkevich, told journalists.

According to him, the transfer will happen this evening or tomorrow morning.

The official reason for Amriyev’s initial detention on the Russian–Ukrainian border in Bryansk on 4 June was an inaccuracy in his passport, where the year of birth was incorrectly indicated. According to Russian rights group the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, the real reason for his detention is that a high ranking Chechen police official has publicly declared a blood feud against the Amriyev family.

Russian human rights activists argue transfering Amriyev to Chechen police is tantamount to a death sentence. After his detention in Bryansk, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture urgently appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to prevent his transfer to Chechnya.