ICRF refuses to investigate kidnapping of a Dagestani native by Chechen law enforcers

Chechen law enforcers kidnapped Ibragim Selimkhanov, a native of Dagestan, and tried to use threats to get from him the information about a programme to help LGBT people in the Caucasus. The police refuse to accept a complaint about kidnapping from Ibragim Selimkhanov, the “Russian LGBT Network”* reports.

According to the complaint of the “Russian LGBT Network”*, since June 29, that is, for almost two months, in Moscow, the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) refuse to accept the complaint about the kidnapping of Ibragim Selimkhanov. The kidnapping took place on May 15. Four persons in civilian clothes approached Ibragim Selimkhanov in Moscow, seized his passport, apartment keys, and a mobile phone. Then, they forced him into a car and took him to the airport, where they bought tickets to Grozny.

The human rights defenders claim that in Chechnya, Ibragim Selimkhanov was handed over to law enforcers, who threatened him and exerted psychological pressure on him, while seeking the information about the emergency assistance programme of the “Russian LGBT Network”* engaged in providing help to LGBT people in the Caucasus. In November 2020, Ibragim Selimkhanov himself appealed to the “Russian LGBT Network” with a complaint about violence from his relatives because of his sexual orientation. The human rights defenders helped Ibragim Selimkhanov leave for Moscow, and after that he was put on the wanted list. According to the young man, at the time of his kidnapping he was no longer on the wanted list, he lived and worked in the Russian capital.

In Chechnya, the law enforcers placed him with relatives with whom Ibragim Selimkhanov had never communicated before. He was also controlled by employees of a law enforcement body. However, the young man managed to quietly leave the house and leave Chechnya.

* The organization is included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in the register of non-profit organizations-foreign agents.