Russia disregards OSCE recommendations on alleged human rights violation in Chechnya

By Russian LGBT network:

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) report on alleged human rights violations and impunity in the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation, issued in December 2018, explicitly stated that the allegations of "very serious human rights violations in the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation have been found confirmed". Despite the undoubful evidence for crimes, Russian authorities continue giving no adequate response to these atrocitis and refuse to protect its citizens from severe persecution on grounds of sexual orientation in Chechnya.

On January 29, 2019, Igor Kochetkov filed a report to the Investigative Committee on the renewal of mass illegal detentions and sophisticated tortures organized by police within the state-sponsored campaign against people who are, or percieved to be LGBI. Recently he received a reply from the Central Investigation Department of the North Caucasus District, notifiyng that the case was delivered to the Head of the Investigation Department in Chechnya for cosideration. Technically this means that the perpetrators should now investigate again whether or not they were participating in persecution.

According to the facts established by the Russian LGBT Network, in the end of December 2018 - January 2019, at least 40 people were detained by police in Chechnya on grounds of homosexuality, 14 of them were held hostage in the same law-enforcement facility (Zavodskoye RUVD) among them was Beckham Usupov, whose name was in the list of missing persons, also reported to the Investigative Committee.

In view of the shortcomings of the pre-investigation procedure led by the regional Committee on Investigation, Russian LGBT Network many times argued that such redirection eliminates justice for the survivors: it prevents fair investigation and trial, and should not be taken as a measure to examine the situation.

The OSCE report under the Moscow Mechanism also articulated it as the obstacle on the way to proper and transparent examination of the facts of persecution and issued a recommendation to the Russian Investigation, urging to assure that the "pre-investigation in politically sensitive cases in the Chechen Republic should be led by investigators from the federal and not the regional level".

Considering that this was ignored, we conclude that Russian authorities has no intention to follow the recommendations prepared as a result of analysis under the auspicies of the OSCE to ensure effective investigation of crimes. The government deliberatly deprives its citizens from enjoing their right on access to justice and connives at severe human rights violation committed on its land in Chechnya.

Kadyrov, Chechnya's president, has the support of Putin