The Associated Press: Chechen critic fears for his life as he faces deportation

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A gravelly voice rings out from the phone’s loudspeaker: “Aren’t you scared of me?”

The man on the screen, 32-year-old Chechen video blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov, frowns.

“I’m not scared of people like you,” he says, looking into the camera. “But you people are cruel, so I’m always on my guard.”

He was apparently talking to one of the most feared men in the Russian province of Chechnya, Magomed Daudov, the right-hand man of strongman Ramzan Kadyrov.

Kadyrov and his security forces have been widely accused by international rights groups of extrajudicial arrests, torture and killings — and Kadyrov has warned that Chechens who fled abroad will pay dearly for their criticisms of his rule if they return home.

Abdurakhmanov — who fled Chechnya in 2015 and has been seeking asylum ever since — now faces deportation from Poland. His case highlights the challenges for people from mostly Muslim Chechnya trying to seek asylum in Europe, where governments have become increasingly reluctant to let them in amid terrorism fears and growing anti-migrant sentiment.

“If I go back there, that’s the end for me,” Abdurakhmanov told The Associated Press. “I can’t even fathom the horrible things that will happen.”

Видео The Associated Press: Chechen critic fears for his life as he faces deportation канала Francesca Ebel