Missing Persons Report Issued for Abducted Chechen Woman as Fears of Honor Killing Grow

Russia’s Interior Ministry has released a missing persons report for a woman who was forcibly taken to Chechnya almost two years ago, as reported by the exiled news outlet Mediazona on Monday.

Seda Suleimanova, 28, escaped Chechnya in October 2022 after her relatives reportedly threatened to kill her for refusing an arranged marriage. In August 2023, she was abducted from her St. Petersburg apartment by Russian police and unidentified men from Chechnya and forcibly returned to her family.

Since then, there have been no updates on Suleimanova’s whereabouts. In April 2024, federal investigators initiated a criminal inquiry into her disappearance, and the case was later transferred to Chechen law enforcement authorities.

On Monday, Mediazona revealed that Russia’s Interior Ministry included her in its missing persons registry.

There are concerns that Suleimanova may have been the victim of an «honor killing»—a practice where family members, usually men, take the lives of women accused of bringing shame to the family. This tragic occurrence is known to happen in the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus, particularly in Chechnya, although the true number of victims remains unclear due to the secretive nature of such incidents.

The human rights organization SK SOS, which assisted Suleimanova in fleeing Chechnya in 2022, reported that her relatives informed investigators that she escaped their home again in February 2024. However, the group noted that these same relatives did not report her missing after that incident.

SK SOS has initiated a petition urging federal authorities to assume control of the investigation from Chechen law enforcement.