Petition seeks freedom for Chechen man suspected of homosexuality
By attending his father’s funeral, ldris Arsamikov ended up in custody.
Human rights organizations are calling for the immediate release of Idris Arsamikov, a gay Chechen man who was detained in Moscow in February and forcibly returned to Chechnya, where he is suspected of being compelled into service in the Russian army’s war in Ukraine. A petition has also been started on the web platform All Out calling for his immediate release, which is open for anyone to sign. More than 8,000 people have already signed it.
Idris Arsamikov, currently 28 years old, had fled to the Netherlands in 2017, where he was given refugee status. He had claimed at the time that he had been detained and tortured by Chechen authorities over his sexuality.
Chechnya is a semi-autonomous republic within Russia, where authorities have frequently boasted of their harsh treatment of sexual minorities.
In March 2022, he returned to Russia to attend his father’s funeral in Chechnya. Because he had lost his Russian passport, he had obtained a temporary passport from the Russian embassy in Amsterdam.
He told the human rights organization Crisis Group North Caucasus SOS that when he attempted to get a new Russian passport in Chechnya, police gave him an internal passport by confiscated his other documents. Without a travel passport, he was unable to leave Chechnya. He has told human rights organizations that he was detained and subjected to torture three times in the Shelkovksy District Police Department during that year.
On February 15 2023, he managed to board a flight from Grozny to Moscow, where Russian police detained him upon landing, citing a criminal investigation into a fraud initiated in 2021, when Arsamikov was still living in the Netherlands. Arsamikov’s advocates and human rights organizations believe the charges were fabricated and that he was targeted for his sexuality. His lawyers have not been able to speak to him since.
Two days after his arrest, he published a video on his VKontakte page in which he denied being gay and asserted that his rights were being respected in Chechnya. He goes on to say that he is receiving medical attention, will soon marry a woman, and will join the Russian army in Ukraine. Human rights organizations believe the video shows evidence that his statements are coerced, which they say is a standard practice to whitewash the actions of authorities in Chechnya who crack down on sexual minorities.
A local news organization Caucasian Knot reports that human rights defenders were able to confirm that Arsamikov is still alive and in his family’s village in Starogladovskaya, Chechnya, but that local villagers prevented them from speaking with him.
Several human rights organizations have called for Arsamikov’s immediate release, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Centre for Protection of Human Rights Memorial, Civic Assistance Committee, COC Netherlands, Crew Against Torture, Crisis Group North Caucasus SOS, Norwegian Helsinki Committee, The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), World Organization Against Torture (OMCT).
The Dutch Foreign Minister also expressed concern for Arsamikov’s safety in a statement on behalf of the Netherlands government on Twitter.
Sign the All Out petition calling for his immediate release.
