Father of Telegram chat moderators leaves Chechnya after threats

The father of the two young men, suspected of aiding a militant, has left Chechnya out of fears for his life, a source from the "Russian LGBT Network" said, adding that advocates were not allowed to see the detainees despite the prescription of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that law enforcers had taken two natives of Chechnya from Nizhny Novgorod to Chechnya – a 20-year-old Salekh Magamadov and his minor brother. On February 6, the young men were interrogated under two criminal cases as witnesses and then detained again. A lawyer from the "Russian LGBT Network" has found that both were kept at the detention centre in Urus-Martan. At the same time, the detainees' father has complained about law enforcers' pressure. The ECtHR has ordered Russian authorities to provide advocates' access to the detainees, as well as of independent medics and relatives.

The brother's father has left Chechnya, said David Isteev, the coordinator of the emergency help programme of the "Russian LGBT Network". "He left the republic because of a deadly threat, as he himself explained it. In the near future, we'll release information on how exactly the detainees had been forced to confess," the coordinator has added.

Mr Isteev has also noted that advocates have not been allowed to visit the detainees at the temporary detention centre (known as IVS) of the Urus-Martan District.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 10, 2021 at 09:31 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.