Gay and bisexual men are being rounded up, detained, and tortured once again in Chechnya, a semiautonomous Russian region, according to new reports.

Nearly two years after initial reports of top officials targeting LGBTQ people, a report from Human Rights Watch concludes local police are now going after the community. The group interviewed four gay men who said they were beaten with sticks and pipes, and shocked with electric currents while strung up by the legs. One was reportedly raped with a stick. They were also given limited water and no food.

The abuse is said to have taken place between three and 20 days earlier this year at the Grozny Internal Affairs Department compound. The men were also made to give up their cellphones and identify other gay and bi men.

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“There wasn’t anything remotely resembling an effective investigation into the anti-gay purge of 2017, when Chechen police rounded up and tortured dozens of men they suspected of being gay,” said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Impunity for the 2017 anti-gay purge has sanctioned a new wave of torture and humiliation in Chechnya.”

Unlike with the 2017 purge, top Chechen officials are not suspected of sanctioning these latest attacks. However, it is believed they felt empowered to illegally detain and abuse gay men after seeing there were no repercussions for the previous actions against LGBTQ people.

Police demanded large sums of money for the men’s release, and one of the men said when he was handed over to his family, they indirectly encouraged his family members to kill him.

Activists from the Russian LGBT Network, which has been working to get LGBTQ people out of the area and into safe houses, said Chechen police detained at least 23 men between December and April because they were presumed to be gay.

Chechen officials are once again denying the reports.