Ruslan Alikhadzhiyev

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Ruslan Alikhadzhiyev (Russian: Руслан Алихаджиев) was a former parliamentary speaker of the Chechen Republic, Russia who was forcibly disappeared by the Russian forces in 2000.

On May 17, 2000, he was abducted by the uniformed Russian soldiers supported by armoured vehicles and helicopters from his home in Shali when he sought a negotiated end to the Second Chechen War on behalf of Aslan Maskhadov. Alikhadzhiyev, who had four small children and was caring for a sick mother, didn't resist. He was blindfolded and taken to a location nearby, which is where he was last seen. On May 25, Colonel General Valery Manilov confirmed the arrest.

In September 2000, Maskhadov's Chechenpress service claimed Alikhadzhiyev was tortured to death in the Moscow's Lefortovo prison. Agence France Presse (AFP), citing sources close to the Chechen leadership, reported that Alikhadzhiyev had died of a heart attack in the Lefortovo. However, the Federal Security Service (FSB), which operates Lefortovo, denied that it is holding Alikhadzhiyev.^[1]^[2]

A Shalinsky District's prosecutor's office said it opened a case for kidnapping, but "the steps taken to identify the individuals responsible for this crime have been unsuccessful" and the investigation was suspended on December 12, 2000.^[3]

The case of disappearance and presumed death of Alikhadzhiyev was used by Sergei Kovalev in his defense of Akhmed Zakayev before the British extradition court in 2003.^[4]

In July 2007, the European Court of Human Rights found Russian authorities responsible for the presumed killing of Alikhadzhyev and ordered the government to pay his mother 40,000 euros ($54,500) in damages.^[5]^[6]