SC refused to open a case about the abduction of a gay man from Chechnya by the police

The Investigative Committee of the Chechen Republic refused to open a criminal case for the abduction of Idris Arsamikov, who was previously prosecuted for homosexuality. Arsamikov was detained by the police in February at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport and taken to Chechnya, where he is being held in his ancestral village. However, the investigators did not find any violations in the actions of the police.

Idris Arsamikov was detained for the first time in 2017 in Chechnya on suspicion of homosexuality. According to him, he was beaten and interrogated in the police department. After he was released from the police, he turned to the human rights group CK SOS, which helped him escape from Chechnya. In January 2018, he moved to the Netherlands and received political asylum there.

At the end of 2022, Arsamikov came to Chechnya for his father’s funeral. There he was again detained and questioned, but released. When he tried to fly back to the Netherlands, he was detained by the police at the airport. According to the lawyers, Arsamikov is accused of fraud. The defenders themselves are looking for a formal charge, and the only reason for the prosecution of Arsamikov is that he is gay.

Arsamikov’s lawyers filed a complaint about violations during his detention and transfer to Chechnya, the IC SOS crisis group reported. The investigators conducted an investigation and stated that no one detained Arsamikov – he was allegedly offered to return to his family with his mother, who is worried about him, and he agreed.

• On February 17, Arsamikov published two videos in which he stated that he turned to human rights activists under pressure and refused their help. SC SOS does not exclude the use of degrading treatment and torture.
• In April, the Sota correspondent met with the lawyers of “CK SOS” came to the village of Starogladovskaya, where Arsamikov was born and lived. They managed to talk to Arsamikova’s mother, who said that her son lived and “worked on a tractor, in the fields.” Other villagers reported that he was actually “imprisoned” in his family’s house.
• Ten human rights organizations appealed to the Russian authorities to release Arsamikov. The appeal was signed by representatives of Amnesty International, the IC SOS crisis group, Human Rights Watch, “Team against torture” and six other non-profit organizations. Later, the international movement for the protection of the rights of LGBTQ+ people All Out and members of the European Parliament’s LGBTI Intergroup forum made the same appeal.