As reported by activists on Thursday, February 16, Moscow police arrested and detained a gay Chechen refugee at Domodedovo Airport, before reportedly handing him over to Chechen authorities. The refugee was previously persecuted and tortured in Chechnya because of his sexuality.
The North Caucasus LGBTQ+ support group SK SOS reported that Idris Arsamikov, a 28-year-old Chechen gay refugee, was arrested right after lending at Domodedovo Airport in Moscow, where he returned for his father’s funeral. The organisation shared a video on their Telegram account showing a visibly shaken Arsamikov being taken away by a plainclothes officer to an unknown location.
“The agent who came to pick up Idris at Domodedovo did not present documents to local police and refused to inform his lawyer about the detainee’s status,” SK SOS wrote. “We believe Arsamikov is now being taken to Chechnya, where he faces mortal danger.”
The group added that they believe that Chechen authorities may have planned to charge him with large-scale fraud, explaining that similar cases are regularly built against Chechen activists who are perceived to be disloyal to authorities in the country.
According to SK SOS, Arsamikov was first detained by Chechen authorities in the summer of 2018. After he was tortured by security forces because he was believed to be in a same-sex relationship, SK SOS helped him flee Chechnya and settle in the Netherlands, where he has lived since.
According to the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, from 2017 to 2020, Chechen authorities arrested and tortured more than 150 people in what has been called the “gay purge”. While the international community have put pressure on Russian officials to establish necessary changes to ensure the protection of queer individuals, anti-LGBTQ persecutions are still carried out in Chechnya. In 2021, the EU imposed sanctions on four organisations and 11 people accused of persecuting LGBTQ+ people in Chechnya.
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