CAT/C/54/D/539/2013 Caucasian armed resistance still had a stronghold in the region. The complainant’s father opened a shop that sold groceries and clothes. Customers included personnel of the Chechen authorities as well as members of the armed resistance. 2.2 In October 2010, about 10 men wearing military uniforms came to the complainant’s home and took him away. The complainant believed that they were members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Shatoy region. They said that they needed to question him and took him to the militia station of Shatoy district. They told him that they knew that he sold groceries to the resistance fighters and that he helped them; that he delivered groceries to their bases in the mountains; and that he was an accomplice of the resistance. The complainant explained that he sold groceries to the armed resistance as he had no choice because they were always armed; however, he was not involved in or related to their activities. Thereafter, he was taken to another room where he was handcuffed and beaten with a truncheon and a rifle butt. He was hit all over his body, except for his face. He was put to sit on a chair with his arms attached to a bar and electrodes were attached to his little finger. One of the interrogators turned on the device which delivered electricity. They told that they knew that he had been cooperating with the resistance fighters and that he should confess. The complainant said that he had nothing to confess. After two hours of torture, he was left alone for about one hour. Thereafter, his arms were released from the bar and he was handcuffed. In the evening, “the boss” came in with some documents and told him that if he did not sign them, he would not get out alive. The complainant signed the documents, without reading the contents. He was then released. 2.3 The next day about 10 other men came to the complainant’s home and took him to the Office of the Russian Commandant in Khankala, Grozny. The documents that he had signed were presented, and new accusations were levelled at him. They accused him of being a former resistance fighter who had obtained amnesty but who continued to cooperate with the fighters by selling them groceries and that he had confessed in the documents that he had signed. He tried to explain to the federal authorities that he had been threatened and tortured in Shatoy and forced to sign the documents. He was taken to a small room without windows, located in the basement of the building, where he was again threatened, beaten and exposed to electrical shocks while in a sitting position, while hanging from a wall with his arms tied in front of him, and with electrodes attached to his feet and legs. He was doused with cold water, which made the electrical shocks even more painful. He lost consciousness. Following each torture session, he was placed in a 2m x 2m incarceration cell, which had a wooden bunk but no blanket. His clothes were never removed and he was left in his wet track pants and t-shirt. He was given some kind of porridge or boiled potatoes to eat once or twice a day. He was detained for two weeks and subjected to interrogations and torture several times a day. The interrogators in both Shatoy and Khankala were Chechens. 2.4 The complainant was released on the condition that he cooperated with the authorities by establishing contact or infiltrating the resistance fighters’ base in order to provide intelligence. He was told that if he failed to cooperate, he or his relatives would be killed. He went back to Dai, but his father did not think that it would be safe for him to stay there so he took him to the village of Nadterechnoe to stay with a friend. 2.5 Two or three days after his release, the authorities came to his home to look for him. As he had already left, his whole family was subjected to beatings. His wife and children moved to her parents’ home. Meanwhile, in Nadterechnoe, the complainant stayed indoors most of the time. His father visited him about twice a month. 2.6 After three to four months, his parents came to see him and told him that they had arranged for him to leave the country. They took him to the outskirts of Grozny and he left Chechnya in a van, together with his uncle and two cousins. They changed vans twice before arriving in Sweden on 17 May 2011. The complainant had no passport; however, he 3