05 February 2022, 08:29
100,000 support petition in defence of Magamadov and Isaev
A petition demanding to release Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isaev, natives of Chechnya, who were kidnapped exactly a year ago from Nizhny Novgorod, has gathered more than 100,000 signatories. The authors of the petition note that the lives of the two brothers are in danger.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isaev went on a hunger strike against the refusal of the Achkhoi-Martan District Court to transfer their case for consideration in another Russian region. On January 8, the brothers ended the hunger strike due to deteriorating health and lack of response from government bodies. On January 26, the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya refused to consider the arguments of the advocates of the brothers Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isaev about the need to transfer their case for consideration in another region of Russia and stopped the proceeding on their complaint.
The brothers are accused of aiding a militant from Aslan Byutukaev’s grouping. According to the investigators’ version, the brothers gave the militant bread, juice, tea, and chocolate. In March 2021, Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isaev complained about being tortured after their detention. The charge is ridiculous, since the brothers are members of LGBT community and are atheists, but according to the investigators’ version, they are supporters of radical Islam, notes Elena Milashina, an observer of the newspaper “Novaya Gazeta”.
On February 4, on the first anniversary of the kidnapping of the brothers from Nizhny Novgorod, the above petition demanding their release, created by the NC SOS crisis group, gathered more than 100,000 signatures.
The text of the petition posted on the website of the All Out platform by its initiators ask the US President, Joe Biden, and the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to fulfil their promise to use the US diplomacy and international communication to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ people and immediately appeal to the Russian government demanding to release Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isaev. Their lives are in danger just because they are LGBTQ+, the NC SOS group has pointed out in the petition.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 4, 2022 at 08:43 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Author: The Caucasian Knot
