A resident of Dagestan claims that her parents sent her to a rehabilitation center to “cure” her of bisexuality. She reported torture

Elina Ukhmanova, a resident of Dagestan, filed a complaint with the police after she was forcibly detained and tortured for four months in the "Alliance Recovery Rehabilitation Center." This was reported to Meduza by the SK SOS crisis group, which helps LGBT people in the North Caucasus.

Elina Ukhmanova said that she was subjected to physical and psychological violence in the family, which is why she ran away from home twice. After the second escape, Ukhmanova was found by two men who took her to Alliance Recovery. She claims that this was done at the request of her parents, who paid to have their daughter "cured" of bisexuality and atheism.

Alliance Recovery positions itself as a medical institution, although it does not appear in the register of medical organizations.

Ukhmanova claims that in the center she and other detainees were subjected to physical violence, they were handcuffed, and they were hung up for a long time, handcuffed to the railing. The people held in the center were not fed, forced to squat 400 times or do push-ups 200 times. According to Elina Ukhmanova, people who quarreled with each other were handcuffed. After four months, Ukhmanova's parents took her away from the center.

Ukhmanova, in her statement to the police, filed in December, asked to open a criminal case in connection with illegal medical activities and illegal restriction of freedom.

“Elina’s case is not unique: in the North Caucasus, anti-scientific “conversion therapies” are practiced, with the help of which it is supposedly possible to “cure” a person from homosexuality. Such practices are not only useless, but also harmful: they often mean psychological and physical violence,” the crisis group “SK SOS” said.