Release version of Bekkhan Yusupov in Chechnya questioned

The publication about the detention in Chechnya of Bekkhan Yusupov has helped save his life, says Igor Kochetkov, the head of the Russian LGBT Network. Yusupov's advocate claims that prior to his client's arrival in Grozny, he was in mortal danger.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 1, on the air of Chechen TV Bekkhan Yusupov announced that he had been detained because of keeping some rusty cartridges. He refuted the version that he had been detained on suspicion of his homosexuality, and accused the "Novaya Gazeta" of slander.

In his turn, Mr Kochetkov believes that Yusupov is not the author of the statements against the Russian LGBT Network and "Novaya Gazeta", noting that Yusupov received help regardless of his sexual orientation.

In turn, his advocate, Alexander Karavaev, treats the official version that Yusupov was detained for the illegal keeping ammunition as improbable.

"He was released the same evening, immediately after media reports about the secret division ... where they tried to close me. He got in touch and immediately found himself in hands of people who call themselves a Chechen human rights defender and a journalist from France [Kheda Saratova and Evdokia Moskvina]. Obviously, Bekkhan was taken there to quickly bring the situation into at least a semblance of a legal field. There was a resonance in the media; and the situation could not be ignored any further," said the advocate.

He pointed to the mortal danger for Yusupov, if there was no intervention of an advocate.