Chechen police 'kidnap and torture gay men' - LGBT activists
11 April 2017
Europe

Image caption Gay rights are restricted in Russia and abuses are worse in Chechnya, LGBT activists say
Gay men are fleeing brutal persecution in Chechnya, where police are holding more than 100 people and torturing some of them in an anti-gay crackdown, Russian activists say.

Natalia Poplevskaya of the Russian LGBT Network said "we are working to evacuate people".

A government spokesman called the reports "lies" and said homosexual people "simply don't exist in the republic".

Homophobia is widespread in Chechnya.

The mainly Muslim region is run by Ramzan Kadyrov, an authoritarian leader with a notorious private militia, fiercely loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ms Poplevskaya told the BBC that victims - either gay or just perceived as gay - are being held at a detention centre near Argun, 20km (13 miles) from the city of Grozny.

She said the LGBT Network, based in St Petersburg, was aware of "an organised campaign to detain gay men" in Chechnya.

"Torture is going on with electric shocks, beatings with cables. All the people arrested are homosexual men or perceived as being gay," she said. Three deaths have been reported.

More than 30 people were crammed into one cell, she added.

Despite appeals to the Russian authorities to stop the abuses, no action has been taken, she complained.

Kadyrov spokesman Alvi Karimov denied the alleged persecution.

"You can't detain and repress people who simply don't exist in the republic," he said.



The gay rights group has an email hotline to help victims, or potential victims, flee to other parts of Russia. Ms Poplevskaya declined to say where those victims were being sheltered.

News of the crackdown was broken by the Russian daily Novaya Gazeta, which specialises in human rights investigations. It reported that the detainees included some influential Muslim clerics close to Mr Kadyrov, and two well-known Chechen TV presenters.

"We confirm what was said in Novaya Gazeta," Ms Poplevskaya said, while declining to name her sources in Chechnya.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39566136


More:

More than 100 gay men have been detained by Chechnya in what are claimed to be the first concentration camps since the Holocaust.

The existence of the prisons in the Russian republic - close to the border with Eastern Europe - has been verified by human rights organisations and local media.

The men have been arrested as part of a widespread purge of LGBT people across the region.

The ruling government has, somewhat amazingly, claimed the camps could not exist - because 'there are NO gay people in Chechnya'.


In front of the Russian Embassy in Berlin on Saturday, hundreds of people protested against the kidnapping, torture and murder of gay men in Chechnya - many waving anti-homophobia placards directing their protest at President Vladimir Putin .

Information on the Chechen camps first surfaced on April 1 - which led to people initially dismissing it as "a bad April Fools' joke".

But the existence of the concentration camps has now been verified by human rights organisations - corroborated by eyewitness reports.

They are believed to be the first camps of their kind to be established for LGBT people since World War II.

Details of the camps were first published by an independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta - which has also reported on allegations of so-called "honour killings".

It reports that Chechens are being arrested on the mere suspicion of being gay - and are being in concentration camp prisons where abuse and violence is rife.

Reuters

The spokesman for Ramzan Kadyrov insisted there were NO gay people in Chechnya
Tensions are believed to have arisen following an application for a gay rights march in the Chechen capital of Grozny.

Eyewitnesses have testified that a prison camp has been established in the town of Argun, according to reports.

The spokesman for Chechnya's Interior Ministry dismissed the claims as an "April Fools' joke" on April 1.

Splash News

The protests were over the kidnapping and torture of gay men in Chechnya
The head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov's press secretary described the report as "lies".

He went on to state there were NO gay people in Chechnya.


He reportedly said: "If there were such people in Chechnya, law-enforcement agencies wouldn't need to have anything to do with them because their relatives would send them somewhere from which there is no returning."

Splash News

Hundreds of people attended the rally protesting against what is happening in Chechnya
Human rights organisations have since been investigating the information published by Novaya Gazeta - and have now verified it.

Areport by Human Rights Watch states: "For several weeks now, a brutal campaign against LGBT people has been sweeping through Chechnya.

Main suspects for St Petersburg metro explosion revealed as 11 dead and dozens injured

"Law enforcement and security agency officials under control of the ruthless head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, have rounded up dozens of men on suspicion of being gay, torturing and humiliating the victims.

"Some of the men have forcibly disappeared.

"Others were returned to their families barely alive from beatings.

"At least three men apparently have died since this brutal campaign began."

Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/hundred-gay-men-detained-first-10200263

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Lol....no gay men in russia
I liie that reply, gay men do not exist in russia, russians wont PUTIN in a man's axs