Considerative management

The Commissioner for Human Rights, Tatyana Moskalkova, holds the inspection, which is conducted by the investigating authorities for the appeal of Maxim Lapunov, who announced the torture of gays in Chechnya. It is reported by TASS.

“I requested from the Investigative Committee of their conclusion an examination that they made, and the results of the polygraph that was carried out in relation to this person,” said the Ombudsman. “All conditions should be created for him so that the evidence base could be collected and determined if the offense was committed, then to attract those who committed it accordingly.”

“If he is wrong, then there should be good arguments,” Moskalkova emphasized.

On Monday, Lapunov, who was persecuted in Chechnya, at a press conference in Novaya Gazeta, said that he submitted a statement in the Investigative Committee through the Omudsman demanding an investigation to torture LGBT representatives in the republic . On August 29, human rights activists presented Lapunov Moskalkova. She got acquainted with his statement addressed to the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Alexander Bastrykin and on September 22 transmitted the document in the TFR.

Lapunov lived in Chechnya for two years and was engaged in small entrepreneurship - the sale of balloons. On March 16, he was detained by the Chechen security officials and kept almost two weeks in one of the basements, presumably, the administration of the criminal investigation department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Chechnya. Lapunov was tortured and demanded to name the names of the gay familiar to him. According to Lapunov, he was beaten for the fact that he "Russian, came to Chechnya and" spoiled "Chechens." Subsequently, Lapunov was released. He associates this with the fact that there were many witnesses of detention, and relatives from the Perm Territory, where he came from, put him on the wanted list.

In early May, Lapunov called the hot line of the Russian LGBT network. A public investigation on the fact of his detention in Chechnya for three months was conducted by the Committee to Prevent to Torture (KPPP).

In the application of Lapunov, the Investigative Committee of the Four weeks, the head of the checkpoint Igor Kalyapin, said at a press conference, did not conduct any investigative actions at the request of Lapunov. The representative of Human Rights Watch Tatyana Lokshina added that the information about the Lapunova case was published in order to stimulate the investigation.

The head of the Russian LGBT network Igor Kochetkov said that from April 79 people called the hotline. 27 of them, according to them, were kidnapped and tortured. Almost half of the calling are relatives and friends of the detainees, on whom the law enforcement agencies put pressure. According to Kochetkov, 15 people who were suspected of belonging to the gay community disappeared after issuing to relatives.

The first publications on persecution and murders of homosexuals in Chechnya appeared in the media in early April . They caused a noticeable international resonance. In defense of gays at personal meetings with Vladimir Putin , German Chancellor Angela Merkel andFrench President Emmanuel Macron performed.

Meanwhile, Kadyrov stubbornly denies both the facts of torture and murders of homosexuals, and the very presence of LGBT representatives in the region. For his part, the TFR also stated that he did not find evidence of the persecution of homosexuals in Chechnya.

According to a joint report of the Russian LGBT network and journalist Elena Milashina, in total there were three waves of abductions of homosexuals in Chechnya. The first was held in December 2016 - February 2017, the second - from March to May, before the beginning of Ramadan, the third lasted from the day of the end of Ramadan in June at least until the end of July, when the report appeared.

At the end of July, it became known that homosexuals and bisexuals in Chechnya suffer not only from the Kadyrovites, but also from their own relatives. As reported, representatives of the LGBT community were tortured by members of their families, and several dozen people were killed by their relatives. It was noted that the reprisals were provoked by high -ranking Chechen officials. They guaranteed the relatives that they would not bear responsibility if they "decide to wash away the shame with the family of blood."

In early August, the media reported that several Chechen homosexuals were put on the wanted list as supporters of the Islamic State . As explained, this is done to deprive gays and lesbians, the opportunity to emigrate from Russia. It was also reported that the Kadyrovites are home to gay parents and demand a statement that their children left for war in Syria.