Isaev and Magamadov complain about torture

An advocate of Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isaev managed to get a permission to visit them in a SIZO (pre-trial prison) in Chechnya. The young men claimed that they were repeatedly beaten and forced to keep silence about that fact. The defence filed a complaint to the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 13, the advocate was informed that Magamadov and Isaev had been placed under quarantine; he did not believe it and filed a complaint about the refusal to visit his clients. The brothers are in danger, said the "Russian LGBT Network"*. On August 17, the advocate was again denied a visit to the brothers.

Today, advocate Alexander Nemov has finally succeeded in his attempts to visit his clients Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isaev at the SIZO. They told him that on July 22, they had been taken to court in a luggage compartment of a UAZ Patriot vehicle. The heat made Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isaev feel sick. There was no ventilation, but when they asked law enforcers to open the windows, they heard insults regarding their sexual orientation. Ismail Isaev asked the law enforcers to stop insulting them and, according to him, was beaten for his request.

According to Ismail Isaev, Salekh Magamadov was taken to a cell, while the law enforcers took him into a room without CCTV cameras. “After an hour of ‘conversations,’ <a law enforcer> entered the room and began beating me in the face and body with his fists. Later, he tried to strangle me,” Ismail Isaev complained.

On August 11, at a new conversation, Salekh Magamadov was beaten again, he complained. “They were forcing me to spread my legs as wide as I could and were beating me for a long time. I could not stand that and told them that I would sign whatever they wanted. After that I was taken to a cell,” reads the text of the Salekh Magamadov’s testimony taken by the advocate.

Yesterday, on August 18, a law enforcer talked to Ismail Isaev and demanded from him to keep silence about what had happened and threatened the young man to place him in a punishment cell.

Advocate Alexander Nemov filed a complaint to the ICRF about the incident, the “Russian LGBT Network” reports in its release, which has come to e-mail of the “Caucasian Knot” today.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 19, 2021 at 05:53 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.