When militants carried out a public execution for the first time in the center of Grozny in September 1997, it came as a great shock to local residents. Doctor of Historical Sciences, author of books and scientific publications on the recent history of the region, Abbaz Osmayev, spoke about this in an interview with Lente.ru.
“It was a big shock when a public execution was carried out for the first time on the Friendship of Peoples Square in September 1997. In a criminal case, a woman and two men were shot. Death sentences are passed by courts in other countries as well. And then the execution took place right in the center of the city with a large crowd of people, ”he said.
In 1997, several executions were publicly carried out in Chechnya, which were broadcast, among other things, on federal television channels. The then Russian President Boris Yeltsin reacted to them as follows: “Sharia law contradicts all Russian laws and constitutions.”
In 2019, an archived video of the Sharia trial of the leader of the self-proclaimed Ichkeria, Aslan Maskhadov, was published. Then Shamil Basayev (chairman of the government of Ichkeria banned in Russia), Zelimkhan Yandarbiev (vice president of Ichkeria), Vakha Arsanov (vice president of Ichkeria) and other field commanders representing the opposition opposed him. They accused Maskhadov of violating the oath on the constitution, the Koran and of usurpation of power. Akhmat Kadyrov, who at that time was the mufti of Chechnya, spoke at the trial. Kadyrov announced that Basayev and Yandarbiev were engaging in provocations against Chechen statehood and were dividing the people.
The Chechen war ended on August 31, 1996, and the second Chechen war began after the militants invaded Dagestan on August 7, 1999.