Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Elina Umakhanova, who was placed in a rehabilitation center in Makhachkala at the request of her relatives, complained to the police about the illegal restriction of freedom and torture she suffered there, the SOS Crisis Group reported today.
A native of Dagestan, Elina Ukhmanova, filed a complaint with the police in December 2022, in which she complained that she was forcibly kept in a rehabilitation center. According to the girl, two unfamiliar men abducted her and took her to this center at the request of Elina's parents, who paid for their daughter to be "cured" of bisexuality and atheism, according to a press release of the SOS Crisis Group received by the " Caucasian Knot " today.
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"In her statement, the girl said that she was subjected to physical and psychological violence in the family, which is why she ran away from home twice. The first time her relatives returned her through the Dagestan police: her parents wrote a statement, they began to look for the girl, and when she came to the department to clarify situation, she was detained and handed over to her relatives. The police refused to help the girl solve problems with her family, although she indicated that she did not want to go with her parents," human rights activists said.
After the second escape from the house, the girl was found by two men hired by relatives and taken to a rehabilitation center in Makhachkala, which positions itself as a medical institution, but is not in the unified register of medical organizations.
Elina Ukhmanova said that physical violence was used against patients in this center. In particular, they were handcuffed and hung on the railing if the inhabitants of the establishment quarreled with the management or the guards.
"You could be beaten, and you hang for days, without food and water, and none of the rehabilitators should not talk to such a person. At most, they could let you go to the toilet, and then only a couple of times. The directors openly said that even if a person wets his pants, he will hang like that," the girl's words are quoted in the message.
Also, according to her, those in the center were left without food and forced to do physical exercises: for example, for expletive vocabulary they were forced to squat 400 times or do push-ups 200 times. Those who quarreled with each other were handcuffed with the same handcuffs, Elina said, adding that she herself went handcuffed to another "patient".
Four months later, the girl was taken away by her parents, they locked her daughter at home and took away her phone, because of which the girl was expelled from the university. 18-year-old Elina Ukhmanova, in her statement, asked to open a criminal case in connection with illegal medical activities and illegal restriction of freedom, the Crisis Group said.
"Elina's case is not an isolated one: anti-scientific "conversion therapies" are practiced in the North Caucasus , with the help of which it is supposedly possible to "cure" a person from homosexuality. Such practices are not only useless, but also harmful: they often mean psychological and physical violence. Another of our clients, Magomed Askhabov, filed a complaint about torture in a rehabilitation center last spring […] - the case has not been investigated so far, despite complaints about inaction, and the clinic has expanded its activities and opened a women's department," the report says.
Recall that a native of Dagestan, Magomed Askhabov, said that he left Russia after he managed to escape from his relatives, who sent him to "treat" for homosexuality in a rehab center for drug addicts. He said that in the rehab in Khasavyurt, physical and psychological torture was used on the people contained in it.
On July 18, 2022, Askhabov submitted an application to the Sledkom and the Russian prosecutor's office for a rehabilitation center. In a statement, Askhabov indicated that he and other residents of the center were forced to carry heavy loads, be silent for three or four days, hung by the hands from bars and used other violent practices that were covered with treatment.
A month later, it became known that the Russian Sledkom redirected Magomed Askhabov’s statement to Dagestan, and on October 18 Askhabov filed a complaint with the court, demanding that the inaction of the investigator, who does not respond to his statement, be declared illegal.
Patimat Idrisova, a resident of the Kizilyurt district, also complained about the abduction by her relatives and forced treatment. According to her, when she managed to escape for the first time, her relatives found her and abducted her. With the help of human rights activists, Patimat managed to escape the country and change his name. Relatives repeatedly beat Patimat Idrisova and threatened to kill her, so the escape became a way to save her life, SOS Crisis Group reported.
Cases of domestic violence, like the story of Patimat Idrisova, are not uncommon in the Caucasus, but not everyone is ready to talk about it, let alone decide to run away from home. Severing relations with the family and running away from home is often the only way for girls to save their lives, journalist Svetlana Anokhina and Saida Sirazhudinova, president of the Center for the Study of Global Contemporary Issues and Regional Problems "Caucasus. World. Development," told the "Caucasian Knot."
Earlier, human rights activists interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" told how a victim of domestic violence should act if she plans to leave her family. In particular, they recommended writing a statement asking not to be searched for, finding a lawyer to refuse contact with relatives and change the phone and SIM card, asking for help in case of abduction.
However, they stressed that all the measures they named may be useless, especially in the Caucasus regions, due to the fact that legal mechanisms do not work, the abduction of victims of violence by their relatives does not lead to criminal liability for the abductors, and the authorities prefer not to notice the problem.
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