|
Kadyrov had said he was proud of his son Adam for acquiring
"adult ideals of honor, dignity and defense of his religion",
recirculating a video in which a young man in khaki punches and
kicks a man cowering in a chair before wrestling him to the
floor and slapping him on the head.
The prisoner, Nikita Zhuravel, had complained about the attack
in August to Russia's human rights ombudswoman, who said she had
referred the issue to her counterpart in Chechnya.
But Baza, which has close connections to Russian security
services, said the Chechen interior ministry had declined to
open a case because Adam Kadyrov was under 16, the age of
criminal responsibility.
Ramzan Kadyrov enjoys wide leeway from President Vladimir Putin
to run Chechnya ruthlessly as his personal fiefdom, but angered
even pro-Kremlin hardliners with his praise for his son's
actions in beating up an ethnic Russian.
The alleged Koran-burning did not take place in Chechnya but
Russian investigators said they had transferred Zhuravel to
Chechen custody because Muslims there saw themselves as victims
of the incident.
Ramzan Kadyrov, who turns 47 on Thursday, has ruled Chechnya
with an iron fist since becoming president in 2007. He has
enjoyed generous funding from Putin to ensure the mainly Muslim
region's loyalty to Moscow and rebuild it from the devastation
of two wars that prevented its secession from Russia.
Kadyrov has been giving increasing publicity to Adam and his two
older brothers, the eldest of whom was photographed with Putin
in the Kremlin in March.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by
Gareth Jones)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
