Human rights defenders confirm Chechen singer Zelimkhan Bakaev’s death

Singer Zelimkhan Bakaev was in the field of view of the Chechen law enforcement bodies due to suspicions of homosexuality, and when the information was confirmed, he was killed, the “SK SOS Crisis Group”* reported. Human rights defenders note that the campaign to hunt for gays was initiated by Ramzan Kadyrov, while under his father’s ruling, homosexuals were not persecuted in Chechnya.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on August 8, 2017, Zelimkhan Bakaev, a 26-year-old native of Grozny, went missing, and on September 24, 2017, a video was released in which Zelimkhan Bakaev announced that he was in Germany. However, his acquaintances and human rights defenders considered the video staged and drew attention to the young man’s unnatural behaviour. In November 2020, human rights defenders reported that the fate of Zelimkhan Bakaev remained unknown, although Ramzan Kadyrov indirectly confirmed that the young man had been killed.

Zelimkhan Bakaev was monitored due to suspicion of homosexuality. The police looked for evidence and followed the singer on his travels. Zelimkhan Bakaev had a relationship with a young man from another republic of Northern Caucasus, but they never showed up together and did not publicly show their feelings, said a source close to associates of Ramzan Kadyrov.

To verify the information, the police sent a Chechen man to a female friend of the Zelimkhan Bakaev’s boyfriend. The man had been courting the girl for several months and was trying to lead her into personal conversations. Once the girl gave away that Zelimkhan Bakaev and her friend were dating in her apartment and that she saw them kissing.

Another source admitted that the singer was being monitored because of an anti-gay campaign. According to the source, friends of Zelimkhan Bakaev warned him of possible risks and asked him to leave Russia, but the young man stayed in the country because of the need to care for his sick mother. He believed that he was safe because he lived in Moscow and was known as a pop singer.

The source suggested that his former boyfriend, who had connections with the law enforcement bodies in Chechnya, could “surrender” Zelimkhan Bakaev. Besides, shortly before the Zelimkhan went missing, his acquaintance was detained in the republic, who was tortured because of his homosexuality.

According to the source, having learned about the Zelimkhan Bakaev’s homosexuality, Ramzan Kadyrov was angry, since earlier, he received artists and shook a Zelimkhan Bakaev’s hand**.

According to the “SK SOS Crisis Group”*, before his death, Zelimkhan Bakaev was tortured for a long time by Chechen law enforcers. His body was handed over to his family and ordered to be “buried like a dog.”

Before Ramzan Kadyrov came to power, gays in Chechnya lived quite freely. Under the ruling of Akhmat Kadyrov, a father of Ramzan Kadyrov, gays could easily gather, and they even had their own community, a source said. Detentions of gays began around 2015, perhaps because of the many videos of Chechen gays openly relaxing in night clubs in Moscow, or because Russian LGBT activists planned pride parades in the regions of the Caucasus.

According to another version of the sources, the “hunt for gays” in Chechnya began because of an imam close to Ramzan Kadyrov. When it turned out that the imam dated a guy and several religious figures, that information “brought the leader of the republic to hysterics.”

Persons detained by law enforcers on suspicion of homosexuality are tortured and required to confess or slander other people, the human rights defenders report.

There is a system of informants in the republic, and a number of them receive a reward for betraying gays. In addition to the informants, there are those who arrange “fake dates.”

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.

**Changes have been made to the text of the paragraph.