In Chechnya, police detained Rizvan Dadaev, after which they forced him to confess on video that he tried to meet another man and have sex with him. The recording was posted by human rights activist Igor Kochetkov on his Facebook page, he filed an application with the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor's Office and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation with a request to investigate the situation and identify the authors of the video. Dadaev's whereabouts are currently unknown.
First, law enforcement officers asked Dadaev for his full name and place of registration, after which they asked questions about the reason for the detention:
– Why was he detained?
For wanting to meet a guy.
Why meet? Why did you want to meet?
– Have sex.
– Louder!
– Have sex.
According to Kochetkov, Dadaev was indeed detained for meeting other men for sex. Where he is now and whether he is alive is unknown, the human rights activist clarifies. He also said that he received messages from Chechnya with requests for help to the detainee from his acquaintances throughout the week, and they sent a video with Dadaev. The Chechens themselves are afraid to turn to law enforcement agencies, so they asked the human rights activist about it.
“Incarceration for sexual relations between consenting adults is itself illegal. There are numerous cases of disappearances and torture of homosexual and bisexual people in Chechnya. Rizvan Dadaev may be in mortal danger,” Kochetkov wrote.
The SOS Crisis Group reported on its Telegram channel that, in addition to Dadaev, at least two more people disappeared on the night of July 24-25. Their acquaintances cannot get in touch with them and attribute this to the sexual orientation of the missing. Human rights activists have been told that gay dating apps, particularly Hornet, are now being sent out by police officers to meet up with fake pages. Some of them introduce themselves as Emin.
“It is surprising with what cynicism the Chechen police officers themselves distribute Dadaev’s video among acquaintances on the Internet. They are not afraid of punishment, their hands are untied, they are their own law. All this is the result of inaction for many years by the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor's Office and the government of the Russian Federation.”
In June, three local residents were killed in Chechnya while participating in a group sex party. All of them were detained by the police and disappeared after the video of their sexual intercourse reached the Chechen leadership.
The first to openly talk about the persecution of LGBT people in Chechnya were Amin Dzhabrailov, a resident of Grozny, and Maxim Lapunov , a native of the Omsk region. They were both arrested and spent some time in cells in various prisons, where they were beaten and tortured with electric shocks, demanding to name other members of the LGBT community. Later, it became known about the flight from the family of Aminat Lorsanova , whom relatives beat and “treated” for bisexuality. In 2021, Khalimat Taramova was abducted, who, before escaping, also reported beatings and threats from her relatives.