At the time Lapunov was living in Chechnya, an autonomous, deeply conservative, mainly Muslim region in the south of Russia. In a complaint filed with the Strasburg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Maxim Lapunov said Russia had failed to protect him as he was arrested and beaten up by police in the Chechen capital Grozny in 2017, according to a human rights group representing him. At the time Lapunov was living in Chechnya, an autonomous, deeply conservative, mainly Muslim region in the south of Russia. Chechnya's Moscow-backed president Ramzan Kadyrov has previously denied human rights abuses. Earlier this month the United States imposed sanctions on a Chechen group and five people over allegations of human rights abuses, including the torture of LGBT+ people.

Source: Otago Daily Times May 24, 2019 16:41 UTC