Russian LGBT Group Says Man Was Abducted, Taken To Chechnya, And Pressed For Info On Gays In Region

By Caucasus.Realities

The Russian LGBT Network says Daghestan native Ibragim Selimkhanov was abducted earlier this year in Moscow and forcibly brought to the North Caucasus region of Chechnya, where authorities pressed him for information on gay people in the region.

The group said on August 25 that four Chechen-speaking men abducted Selimkhanov in mid-May in the Russian capital and brought him by plane to the Chechen capital, Grozny, where he was questioned regarding the Russian LGBT Network's associates who assist gays in the North Caucasus.

Days after that, Chechen authorities handed Selimkhanov to his mother, who resides in Grozny. Selimkhanov was under permanent surveillance after that but managed to leave the region for Moscow, where he filed a complaint with police asking to find his abductors and bring them to justice.

Rights groups have accused predominantly Muslim Chechnya of targeting sexual minorities, including the use of abductions, torture, and extrajudicial killings.

Chechen authorities have rejected the accusations.

With reporting by Mediazona