The Munich Higher Regional Court sentenced 49-year-old Russian citizen Valid Dadakaev to 10 years in prison on charges of organizing an assassination attempt on the brother of Chechen blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov, oppositionist Muhammad Abdurakhmanov. Deutsche Welle writes about it.
During the debate, the prosecutor asked the court to sentence Dadakaev to 11 years in prison, Der Spiegel clarifies.
According to investigators, in 2020 the convict received an order from his cousin Ramzan Kadyrov to “physically eliminate” Muhammad Abdurakhmanov. The murder of the oppositionist, according to German law enforcement officers, was planned “with the knowledge, approval and in the interests” of the head of Chechnya.
Beginning in the spring of 2020, Dadakaev followed Abdurakhmanov, who lived in Germany, then purchased a weapon from his relative to kill him and found a killer from Chechnya, Tamerlan Aurbiev, who in the past fought in the Chechen Republic against federal troops, but was amnestied by Kadyrov.
Aurbiev, according to investigators, came to Germany, applied for asylum and, in conjunction with Dadakaev, planned the murder of the Chechen oppositionist. But on the eve of the crime, the killer changed his mind and himself informed Abdurakhmanov about the impending attempt on his life. After this, Aurbiev cooperated with the investigation and moved his family to Germany, becoming a participant in the German authorities’ witness protection program.
In a commentary to Deutsche Welle, Muhammad Abdurakhmanov said he should have been killed because he and his brother Tumso Abdurakhmanov were publicly critical of the Russian regime in Chechnya. He also said that he learned about the assassination attempt that was being prepared on him several months in advance and treated Aurbiev’s words with confidence, since the threat to his life had existed for a long time. He also reported from the words of the failed killer that they promised to pay half a million euros for his murder.
Tumso Abdurakhmanov spoke on his YouTube channel about preventing the murder of his relative. He named the name of the organizer of the assassination – Paruddi Edelgeriev. According to the blogger, he bought the Makarov pistol for killing Dadakaev from his relative Roman Tsakaev. The latter was already known to Tumso for having recorded insults against him in 2019. Weapons Dadakaev smuggled to Germany.
Tumso Abdurakhmanov left Chechnya in 2015 after a conflict with the then head of the Chechen government administration Islam Kadyrov. Abdurakhmanov did not let his motorcade through and was stopped. The official examined Tumso’s phone and allegedly found extremist materials in it. After this, according to Abdurakhmanov, he was repeatedly forcibly detained in the house of Islam Kadyrov and threatened. Abdurakhmanov tried to obtain asylum in Georgia and Poland, but was denied in both cases.
In March 2019, the speaker of the Chechen parliament, Magomed Daudov, declared a blood feud against the blogger and promised to find him. Before this, Abdurakhmanov wondered why Akhmat Kadyrov once called for war with Russia. “When he was a mufti, he called for jihad against (Russia), and at the beginning of the second war he was nobody – he was a traitor to the Chechen people. I despise the memory of Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov. This is my right,” the blogger said.
After this, an attempt was made on Tumso Abdurakhmanov, but the blogger remained alive. And in December 2022, the Chechen Telegram channel 1ADAT reported on his murder. Later, Kavkaz.Realii, citing the press service of the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, reported abroad that Abdurakhmanov was alive and under the protection of the Swedish police.
In February 2023, Tumso Abdurakhmanov contacted the Sweden-based Chechen human rights association Vayfond and published a video entitled “Return.” In it, he spoke about the death of Abdul-Kerim Edilov, calling him the “nanny” of Kadyrov’s three sons. It was he, according to the blogger, who wrote that Abdurakhmanov was “utilized.” “Imagine the irony of fate. Now Abdul-Kerim himself has been “disposed of,” and I am alive and well,” he added. Tumso also said that he “missed” blogging, but did not disclose the details of his disappearance.
