Andrey Kotov. Photo: SOTAvision
The case of the Russian travel agent who was found dead in custody in December after being arrested for organising tours for queer people will proceed to trial, BBC News Russian reported on Friday.
Andrey Kotov was arrested in late November and charged with participating in and organising the activities of an “extremist community”, a reference to a Russian Supreme Court outlawing the so-called “international LGBT movement” in 2023.
Footage of a police raid on Kotov’s home in November showed him struggling to breathe as police officers questioned him aggressively. “About 15 people showed up in the middle of the night. I was beaten, punched in the face, hit on the legs,” Kotov said during a court hearing reported by Mediazona on 2 December.
Kotov was found dead in his cell within a month, with investigators claiming he had committed suicide. Kotov’s lawyer Leysan Mannapova told BBC News Russian that the investigation had decided not to close the case after Kotov’s death as there had been no request from Kotov’s relatives to do so.
Despite being beaten by police during his detention, Kotov denied the charges in court, while investigators said that an examination of Kotov’s phone confirmed his involvement in the “crime” of organising boat trips on the Volga and a tour to Egypt for queer Russians, which, the investigation added, was “directed against the constitutional order and security of the state”.
Mannapova told BBC News Russian in January that the charges had come as a complete shock to her client, who she said “never fully understood” what he was being accused of, while his friend Svetlana said Kotov considered himself an apolitical person and did not believe Russia’s repressive anti-LGBT laws would directly affect him. “We’ve always been oppressed and persecuted, we’ll survive, it’s no big deal,” Svetlana recalled him saying.
