Media Note
The Department is publicly designating Muslim Khuchiev, the Chairman (Prime Minister) of the Government of the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation, under Section 7031(c) of the FY 2019 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Act, due to his involvement in gross violations of human rights. Section 7031(c) provides that, in cases where the Secretary of State has credible information that foreign officials have been involved in significant corruption or a gross violation of human rights, those individuals and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States. The Department has credible information that Muslim Khuchiev was involved in torture.
The law also requires the Secretary of State to publicly or privately designate such officials and their immediate family members. In addition to the designation of Muslim Khuchiev, the Department is also publicly designating his spouse, Sapiyat Shabazova.
We note that a recent report produced under the OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism concluded that Chechen government officials have committed serious and ongoing human rights violations and abuses with impunity, engaging in “harassment and persecution, arbitrary or unlawful arrests or detentions, torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions.” We again call on Russian Federal authorities to hold those officials responsible for human rights violations in Chechnya to account, including Muslim Khuchiev.
For more information, please contact DRL-Press@state.gov.
Published April 25, 2019 at 03:36PM
Read more at https://travel.state.gov
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