Four years after Chechnya began arresting and torturing people suspected to be LGBTQ+, its leaders may finally face repercussions for the brutal campaign. A group of advocacy organizations filed criminal charges earlier this year against five high-ranking politicians in the semi-autonomous Russian republic, charging them with “crimes against humanity.”
In a 97-page complaint, the German nonprofit European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights joined with Russian LGBT Network to detail the “persecution, unlawful arrests, torture, sexual violence and incitement to murder” of queer and transgender Chechens, as The Guardian reports.
While the text of the complaint has not been made public, ECCHR founder Wolfgang Kaleck said in a statement to the U.K. newspaper that the legal case is intended to ensure “that Europe is no safe haven for war criminals.”
“If no other jurisdiction investigates, Germany is able and must be willing to take over tasks, representing thereby Europe and the international community,” Kaleck said, likely referring to a stalled criminal complaint filed before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2017. According to The Guardian, the previous case against Chechnya “failed to gain traction because Russia has withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the tribunal in The Hague.”
Five Chechen leaders were named in the complaint, including Abuzayed Vismuradov, Chechnya’s deputy prime minister, and Ayub Katayev, a senior official within the Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. Both officials were sanctioned by the European Union (EU) in March for human rights violations, including suppression of political dissent in Europe’s north Caucasus region.
Should the Public Prosecutor General within Germany’s Federal Court of Justice decide to take up the case, local officials would have the authority to arrest them. Their detainment would reportedly fall under “universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity,” as The Guardian claims.
It is unknown if these arrests might include Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen republic head viewed as the leading figure in the anti-LGBTQ+ purge. At least publicly, Kadyrov has denied reports of a crackdown on queer and trans people in the Muslim majority territory of 1.4 million people, telling HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel in 2017 that Chechnya doesn’t “have such people here.”
“We don’t have any gays,” he said at the time. “If there are any, take them to Canada. Praise be to God. Take them far away from us. To purify our blood, if there are any here, take them.”
Despite those denials, advocacy groups say arrests of LGBTQ+ Chechens remain ongoing — which now number as many as 200 people. Most recently, two brothers accused of being gay were kidnapped by security forces after attempting to flee Chechnya and were returned to Grozny, where they are imprisoned. Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isayev face charges of terrorism for running a Telegram channel critical of the government.
While community organizations like RUSA LGBT and VOICES4 have called on U.S. leaders like President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to denounce the brothers’ detention, they have yet to respond. Meanwhile, Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, declined to commit to challenging Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, on LGBTQ+ equality.
American leaders have taken some limited action against Chechnya in the past, however. Under the Trump administration, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo banned Kadyrov from visiting the U.S. in 2020, while the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the strongman and members of his family under the Magnitsky Act in 2017. Enacted under the Obama administration in 2012, the law permits government officials to freeze the domestic assets of individuals accused of human rights abuses.
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