A man who fled from the Russian autonomous republic of Chechnya to the Netherlands in 2018 because of his homosexuality was arrested at Domodedovo airport in Moscow on Thursday. Human rights organization reports this SK SOS, which is committed to the LGBT community in the North Caucasus. According to Radio Free Europe 28-year-old Idris Arsamikov had traveled to Chechnya for his father’s funeral and was on his way back to the Netherlands when he was arrested.
Arsamikov, whose Dutch residence status is unknown, is said to have been taken to an unknown location. Human rights activists fear he will be transferred to a branch of the Ministry of the Interior in Chechnya’s Shelkovskoy district, where he has previously been tortured for his homosexuality.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and his regime are known for cracking down on LGBT people. The Russian newspaper reported Novaya Gazeta in 2017 about the arrest of a hundred gay men. At least three of them would subsequently have died in torture sessions.
SK SOS previously expressed the suspicion that the Chechen authorities have prepared a large-scale fraud charge against Arsamikov, the independent Russian newspaper reports. The Moscow Times. Chechen activists perceived as disloyal to the regime are more likely to be similarly prosecuted.