A 22-year-old bisexual woman who was detained for almost a month at a clinic in Chechnya, where she was beaten and tortured over her sexuality and rejection of Islam, is calling on Russian authorities to initiate criminal proceedings against her tormentors.
Aminat Lorsanova filed a complaint with the Federal investigative Committee of Russia on Monday, calling for charges to be brought against a psychiatric clinic in the Chechen capital Grozny, where she was held for 25 days in August of 2018.
Lorsanova is also seeking the arrest of her parents, who she says facilitated the torture, and an unnamed man who tried to “expel evil spirits” while she was detained for four months at the Republican Psycho-Neurological Dispensary, also in the Chechen capital.
Lorsanova says the man was an acquaintance of her father.
“He was beating me with a stick in the solar plexus, pressing this area and below with his fingers. He put down my skirt to the hips and was pressing there as well,” Lorsanova said in an email to VICE News. “I was screaming out of pain, and he was yelling prayers. My mother and father observed the process but did not do anything even though I asked for help and asked them to stop that.”
Lorsanova also said that on least six occasions at the end of 2018, her father injected her against her will.
“He put handcuffs and tied my legs with adhesive tape. My mouth was also taped. He told me that he was going to treat me like an animal, like a sheep. After the injection of [the antipsychotic medication] aminazin, I was supposed to sleep that way. He even didn’t unleash my legs and hands,” Lorsanova said.
READ: Inside the Chechen prison where gay men say they were tortured
The Federal Investigative Committee of Russia did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Lorsanova’s claims.
