Chechnya Sentences Queer Siblings To Up To Eight Years In Prison.
A local Chechen court on Tuesday jailed queer siblings Salekh Magamadov (21) and Ismail Isaev (19) to almost a decade behind bars after finding them guilty of “complicity with illegal armed formations”.The siblings had first come to the notice of authorities in 2019 after an officer found an LGBTQI Pride flag on Ismail’s phone. Chechen authorities had detained Salekh and Ismail last year, after the siblings tried to flee persecution. “Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isaev must be immediately and unconditionally released,” said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director, in a statement released prior to the sentencing.