Homosexual who emigrated from Russia tells about torture in Chechnya

Amin Djabrailov is the first ethnic Chechen who, without hiding his name, told about the torture he was subjected in Chechnya for his sexual orientation, says the interview "I'm a good guy", posted on October 11 on the website of the Radio Liberty.

According to Djabrailov, he was detained in Chechnya in March 2017. "They took me to Tsotsi-Yurt," said Djabrailov.

One of the means of torture was a black box labelled "lie detector", he said. "That was the way they joked. It was a device that emitted electric current."

In an eight-square-meter cell, where Djabrailov was placed, there could be up to 30 people at a time; there were no windows there. "We slept like herrings on the floor with our legs crossed," said Amin Djabrailov.

According to his story, gay prisoners were treated like slaves.

He has noted that he returned home with his body all blue from beatings; with scars from handcuffs and "paranoia". "Then, I fled to Moscow, and from there – to Saint Petersburg," Amin Djabrailov said.

He turned to the Russian LGBT Network; and they helped him to move to Canada.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in January 2019, it became known about another wave of gay persecution in Chechnya. Since late December 2018, about 40 people were detained in the Chechen Republic for their alleged or actual sexual orientation, and two persons were killed, the NGO "Russian LGBT Network" reported on January 14.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 11, 2019 at 10:59 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.