A St.
Petersburg woman was sentenced to 20 hours of community service on Friday after staging a protest over alleged inaction by law enforcement to investigate her friends disappearance.Police arrested Lena Patyayeva while protesting on the Akhmat Kadyrov Bridge in southwestern St.
Petersburg on Wednesday, citing alleged violations of Covid-19 restrictions.The human rights group NC SOS said Patyayeva was denied access to her lawyer for at least 48 hours after her arrest.
She was found guilty of holding an unauthorized protest and ordered to perform 20 hours of community service, the group said.Patyayeva was protestingwhat she described as authorities sluggish investigation into the disappearance of her friend Seda Suleimanova.Suleimanova fled Chechnya in October 2022 after relatives threatened to kill her for refusing an arranged marriage.In August 2023, Russian police officers and unidentified Chechen men abducted Suleimanova from her St.
Petersburg apartment, where she had been living with her ethnic Russian fiance.
NC SOS said authorities later claimed she had returned to Chechnya voluntarily.She has not been heard from since.
The last known image of her wearing a long dress and headscarf waspostedby Chechnyas human rights commissioner days after her forced return.NC SOS said federal investigatorslauncheda criminal probe into Suleimanovas disappearance in April 2024.Patyayeva has been actively searching for Suleimanova, whom some fear may have been killed in a so-called honor killing a practice in which a woman is murdered by a relative, typically a man, for allegedly bringing shame to her family.Patyayeva said her protest and sentencing helped raise awareness of Suleimanovas case, NC SOS reported on Telegram.A Message from The Moscow Times:Dear readers,We are facing unprecedented challenges.
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