Russian LGBT Network: Chechen security forces kidnapped a resident of Dagestan. The Investigative Committee refuses to initiate a case

In Moscow, on May 15, a resident of Dagestan, Ibragim Selimkhanov, was kidnapped and taken to Chechnya, where they tried to find out information about the Russian LGBT Network. An NGO told Novaya Gazeta about this.

On June 29, human rights activists submitted a complaint about the abduction to the Perovsky investigative department of the RF Investigative Committee in Moscow, but it was not accepted. On August 25, representatives of the network filed a complaint against the investigators.

Human rights activists said that on the day of the abduction, Selimkhanov was approached by four people speaking Chechen. They took away the man’s documents, apartment keys and phone, forced him into a car, took him to Vnukovo airport and bought a plane ticket to Grozny.

“One of them had a weapon with him, but entered the airport building without hindrance and boarded the plane - in combination, this is only possible for representatives of law enforcement agencies,” the LGBT network noted.

Then, as human rights activists reported, in Chechnya the man was handed over to the police, who, through threats and psychological pressure, tried to find out information about the employees of the emergency assistance program of the Russian LGBT Network who work in the Caucasus. After this, Selimkhanov was sent to his mother’s relatives, with whom he never communicated, but the man managed to quietly leave the house and leave Chechnya. Returning to Moscow, he wrote a statement about the kidnapping.

Selimkhanov, as Novaya Gazeta writes, turned to the LGBT network in November 2020 due to violence from relatives related to his sexual orientation. Human rights activists helped him leave for Moscow, after which the man was put on the federal wanted list. The LGBT network noted that Selimkhanov was not wanted at the time of the abduction.