Law enforcement agents have detained Chechen man Idris Arsamikov, who earlier fled the country over persecution for his homosexuality, in Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport and taken him away to an undisclosed location, SK SOS crisis group reports.
Human rights activists believe that Arsamikov is transported to a police station in Chechnya where he was tortured before. The man is in grave danger according to them.
Doctors had to be called to see Arsamikov after he had a panic attack. SK SOS says that the police station chief who signed the instruction to detain him previously used electrical torture on the man to elicit a confessional that he is gay.
Activists claim that Arsamikov can be charged with large-scale fraud. The criminal case was launched in December 2021 when the Chechen man was in the Netherlands, SK SOS reports.
The police detained Arsamikov, 28, in Domodedovo in the early hours of 16 February. The man travelled to Russia from the Netherlands to attend his father’s funeral in Chechnya.
According to the man, police officers told him that Chechen law enforcement agents had been dispatched to fetch him, adding that his detention was linked to “certain issues” in the Russian region. Arsamikov himself explained that he is being persecuted for his homosexuality.
Arsamikov was first detained near Chechnya’s capital of Grozny in summer 2018. According to human rights activists, he was held in a basement and tortured because law enforcement agents learnt about his romantic involvement with another man. Arsamikov then managed to flee Chechnya with the help of SK SOS and emigrate to the Netherlands.
