might
face torture in Russia.
On April 11, Chechen police abducted Magomed Gadaev, an asylum seeker from Chechnya and a key witness in a high-profile torture investigation against Chechnya’s authorities, two days after he was wrongfully deported from France to Russia on 9 April. Chechen police continue to hold him in custody.
French authorities proceeded with Gadaev’s expulsion, despite the decision by the national asylum court to prohibit his expulsion due to substantiated fears for his life and safety taken on March 10, 2021. French authorities’ actions have put him at immediate risk of torture and other ill-treatment and exposed him to a grave danger to his life. This is in flagrant violation of France’s international obligations prohibiting the return of any person, whatever the circumstances, to a territory where they are at risk of serious human rights violations. This prohibition is a non-derogable norm of international law and is affirmed by numerous human rights treaties ratified by France.