Chechen refugee says he was tortured by Russian agents
Said Emin Ibragimov fled to France from Chechnya 14 years ago, and was granted asylum by the French government.
Before arriving in France he was a prominent member of the Chechen separatist movement - which had declared independence from Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
He said he had survived several assassination attempts back home, as well as a knife attack in Istanbul.
He told the BBC that his enemies struck again near his home in Strasbourg just a few weeks after he submitted a case to the International Criminal Court (ICC), making serious allegations against the Russian President Vladimir Putin.