Chechen Authorities Say 2 Detained Gay Men are 'Terrorism' Suspects

Two refugees from the autonomous Russian republic of Chechnya - where LGBTQ people have reportedly been detained, tortured, and murdered - were reportedly snatched from their apartment in the Russian city of Novgorod by Russian police last week and returned to Chechenya.

Now, with the story having garnered international attention, Chechen authorities are claiming that Salekh Magamadov, 20, and Ismail Isayev, 17, are terrorism suspects, reports U.K. newspaper The Guardian.

The men had been smuggled out of Chechnya by a "rainbow railroad" operated by a Russian rights group, the LGBT Network. The Guardian reported that LGBT Network spokesperson Tim Bestsvet "said lawyers were being denied access to the men," who are in reportedly back in Chechnya but at an unknown location.

"Bestsvet said he was concerned for the pair's safety, pointing to other cases when men had been brought back to the republic only to disappear or die," the Guardian added. "The network learned only through Chechen media that they were being detained on suspicion of 'aiding terrorism'."

An aide to Chechen strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov claimed that the men "had confessed to helping an illegal armed group," an offense that "carries a sentence of up to 15 years' imprisonment.

Magamadov and Isayev had made "confessions" last year before being brought out of Chechnya. They had been arrested and reportedly tortured for "running an opposition channel on the Telegram messaging app," the Guardian noted.

Posts from the LGBT Network said that the men were snatched from their apartment on Feb. 4.

"Around 3 pm, one of the men called David Isteev, Emergency Assistance Coordinator of the Russian LGBT Network," the Network's post recounted: "Isteev heard screaming in the background."

The Network sent a lawyer named Alexander Nemov to the men's apartment; arriving about half an hour after the call was made, Nemov found the apartment empty but saw indications that a struggle had occurred there.

Neighbors said they had seen police wearing "black uniforms" in the building. The Network theorized that these were OMON members, the Russian equivalent of a SWAT team.

Nemov filed a missing persons report with the police, at which point, the Network post said, "he found out that Magamadov and Isayev were detained by the local law enforcement officers and passed to the Chechen police."

"The Russian LGBT Network has helped 200 people flee Chechnya, either abroad or to other areas of the country, since the outbreak of 'gay purges' in the republic four years ago in response to what Chechen authorities saw as the increased visibility of the Russian gay rights movement," The Guardian recalled.