Evidence of keeping gay Maxim Lapunov in law enforcers' basement in Chechnya published

The refusal to initiate a torture case of Maxim Lapunov in Grozny is contradictory to the outcomes of the pre-investigation check. This was reported by the "Novaya Gazeta", which has linked the law enforcers' decision with the Kremlin policy.

The natives of Chechnya, persecuted on suspicion of their non-traditional sexual orientation, fear to turn to the police not only because of the threat of pressure on them and their relatives, but also because of the "policy of the Russian authorities", which "left Chechen citizens alone face to face with local law enforcers." This is stated in the article of the "Novaya Gazeta".

According to the newspaper, Lapunov was the only person who appealed to law enforcers. He said that he had spent 12 days in the basement of the criminal investigation department of the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), where he was beaten up. Later, Lapunov was forced to leave Russia because of threats.

Investigators have established facts "objectively evidencing" that after his arrest Lapunov was really kept in the basement of the building of the criminal investigation department.

In particular, Lapunov has described in detail law enforcers and the basement.

In the opinion of the author of the article, the federal centre "has strained all the efforts" to protect the authorities of Chechnya, not the residents of the republic. "That is, to protect that model of power, which, in Moscow's opinion, guarantees stability in Chechnya and for the sake of which any human victims are reasonable and justifiable," says the article.