Russian National Guard commander Zelimkhan Akhmerzoev tried in absentia for extorting families of tortured POW and civilians
A Ukrainian court has convicted in absentia a Russian National Guard commander who tortured a prisoner of war and civilians during the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Region (Oblast), the Prosecutor General’s Office stated.
The convicted man is Zelimkhan Akhmerzoev.
He has been identified as the organiser of punitive squads that carried out repression in the occupied Melitopol District. Akhmerzoev was tried on charges of torture and extortion.
In the case involving the prisoner of war, Akhmerzoev demanded 500,000 hryvnias from the man’s wife to stop the abuse from continuing. In the case involving civilians, he promised to release the victims in exchange for $20,000.
The court sentenced Akhmerzoev in absentia to 10 years in prison.
You may also want to read about the torture of Ukrainian civilians by the Russians
In Chechnya, Akhmerzoev is also known for torturing and killing Chechens who oppose Ramzan Kadyrov’s rule. Local human rights defenders have implicated him in the murder of Grozny resident Movsar Umarov, who was abducted in 2020 and has not been seen since.
Such cases are not isolated in Chechnya.
ZMINA previously reported that an FSB officer nicknamed “Hulk” faces imprisonment for torturing a man in the basement of a sanatorium in the occupied Kherson Oblast.
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