Chechnya authorities put teenager's dead body on public display after he killed police officer

The body of 17-year-old teenage boy Eskerkhan Khumashev was put on public display in Achkhoy-Martan, the town in Chechnya, where he had earlier stabbed two traffic police officers.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by Punsararavishan, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

A woman crying

The teenager's body was displayed near the administration building of the Achkhoy-Martan municipal district. Videos released show people gathered nearby — reportedly including some of Khumashev's relatives.

Is this legal?

Russian journalist and TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak commented on the public display of the teenager's body. In a post on her Telegram channel, she raised questions about the legality of such a practice:

"Is this even legal? Is Ramzan Kadyrov's regime currently complying with Russian law? I'm just asking — maybe it's not. Maybe he's once again living by his own self-made rules," Ksenia Sobchak wrote.

Later, she clarified that she was not making accusations, but merely posing questions and reflecting. She also wondered how Moscow would respond.

Kadyrov called for the deportation of attacker's relatives

On April 9, Chechen TV and radio company Grozny aired a report from a meeting chaired by the head of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, regarding the attack. The report showed a photo of Khumashev and noted that he had lived just one kilometer from the traffic police post, where the attack happened.

During the meeting, Kadyrov ordered the expulsion of Khumashev's father and brothers from the region. Everyone else who  arranged the attack on the traffic post should be deported from Chechnya as well, and their property should be confiscated, Kadyrov said.

Kadyrov emphasized that the identities of those who directed the attacker had been established. Some of them, he said, are in Turkey, and they are being led by a 32-year-old Ukrainian citizen named Andrei.

Khumashev attacked two police officers killing of them

The attack occurred on the evening of April 7. The teenager stabbed a 38-year-old warrant officer named Ramzan in the chest, and then attacked his 20-year-old partner, Rasul. The attacker, Eskerkhan Khumashev, was killed by return fire.

Both traffic police officers were hospitalized, but one of them sustained injuries incompatible with life. A criminal case was opened under Article 317 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Attempt on the life of a law enforcement officer”).

Details

Achkhoy-Martan is a town and the administrative center of Achkhoy-Martanovsky District, Chechnya. Municipally, Achkhoy-Martan is incorporated as Achkhoy-Martan Urban Settlement. It is the administrative center of the municipality and is the only settlement included in it. Achkhoy-Martan is the administrative center of Achkhoy-Martanovsky District. Town status was granted to Achkhoy-Martan in 2023.

Chechnya officially the Chechen Republic, is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with Georgia to its south; with the Russian republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, and North Ossetia–Alania to its east, north, and west; and with Stavropol Krai to its northwest.