Lithuania has deported Chechen-born Beslan Estemirov to Russia, although he had lived in the country for more than 20 years. This was reported by rights activist Roza Dunaeva. The Insider, citing a source in Lithuanian state authorities, also said the person sent to Russia was Estemirov.
According to Dunaeva, Estemirov fled to Lithuania to escape the war in Chechnya. There he started a family and raised children who are Lithuanian citizens. She said legal protection measures linked to proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights were in force in his case.
Dunaeva said Estemirov’s lawyer and family were not notified about his removal to Russia.
She said Lithuanian authorities justified the deportation by calling him a threat to national security. It remains unclear what that threat allegedly consisted of.
Russia had sought Estemirov’s extradition in a case concerning participation in an illegal armed group. Russian investigators claimed that since 2001 he had belonged to an armed unit and had been involved in two bomb attacks on OMON officers. According to the Rosfinmonitoring registry, he was charged under a terrorism article.
In Lithuania, Estemirov was detained twice in drug-related cases. In 2014, he was sentenced to four years in prison and was later released on parole. In 2018, he received a nine-year prison term. Delfi reported that in 2020 Lithuania had already decided to hand him over to Russia before that sentence expired.
In 2024, Delfi wrote that Estemirov was still in a Lithuanian prison and had another year left to serve. At the same time, according to the outlet, the ECHR was expected to decide whether he could be deported to Russia, where he allegedly faced at least torture. Dunaeva, however, said the ECHR had banned his extradition back in 2021. What happened to Estemirov after 2024 is unclear. In April, Kavkaz.Realii reported that he was detained when he came to the Interior Ministry to extend his residence permit.