Russian police detained a gay Chechen refugee upon his arrival in Moscow and forcibly returned him to his homeland. Now Idris Arsamikov is missing. Call on Russian authorities to demand they ensure his safety and immediately release him.
On 15 February, 28-year-old Idris Arsamikov, who came from the Netherlands to Chechnya for his father's funeral, was detained by Russian police at Moscow's airport on fabricated charges of fraud and transferred to Chechnya, a semi-autonomous Republic of the Russian Federation.
On 17 February, Chechen police refused to disclose Idris’ whereabouts to his lawyers and give them access to their client.
On the same day, two videos were published by Idris on VKontakte, a popular social media in Russia, showing him at his home with his mother and uncle, saying that he is fine, he is going to get married and to go to fight in Ukraine and making other statements that appear to be forcibly extracted. Since then, contact with him was lost and his whereabouts remain unknown.
There have been several prominent cases in which Chechen law enforcement staged videos of victims of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances.
Idris was first detained near Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, in 2017. He was kept in the basement and tortured because the security forces became aware of his intimate relationship with a man.
Idris’ life is at risk for no other reason than that he is gay.
Sign this petition and share it urgently with as many people as you can to ask Russian authorities where Idris is, demand from them to provide proof he is still alive and ensure his immediate release.
