A Chechen man who claimed in 2013 that he was tortured by police has been detained in Russia's Bryansk region.
The Committee for the Prevention of Torture said on June 5 that Murad Amriyev, a former world champion in mixed martial arts, was detained while travelling by train the previous day and was expected to be transferred to the Chechen capital, Grozny.
The rights group said that Amriyev will most likely face torture or even death if he is returned to Chechnya.
In 2013, Amriyev told the committee that he had been kidnapped by police in Chechnya who tortured him for two days, hanging him in handcuffs and using electricity to torture him.
Amriyev said at the time that the aim of the police was to force his older brother to return to Russia from Germany, where he had lived for many years.
A high-ranking Chechen police official claimed that Amriyev's brother was involved in an alleged plot to kill him.
After Amriyev was released, he fled Russia.
However, as he still holds a Russian passport he returned to Russia and was on his way to Moscow, where he planned to collect papers necessary to prolong his visa in a foreign country, when he was detained.
Chechen authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Amriyev in February, claiming that he used forged documents.
Amriyev's lawyer Pyotr Zaikin said he will appeal his client's detainment.
Rights groups accuse the Kremlin-backed head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, of responsibility for abuses, including kidnappings, disappearances, torture, and the killings of political opponents.
