Claimants on gays’ genocide in Chechnya declared state political background of lawsuit

The lawsuit lodged to the International Criminal Court (ICC) with a demand to check the information about mass killings of people of non-traditional sexual orientation in Chechnya is aimed at increasing pressure on Russia to "save human lives." This was stated by activists of LGBT associations-initiators of the lawsuit. Kirill Koroteev, a lawyer of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", is sure that the lawsuit has no real prospects.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 16, the French organizations “Stop Homophobie”, “Comité Idaho France” and “Mousse” lodged the above lawsuit to the ICC, accusing the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov of "genocide."

This is the first lawsuit filed by LGBT associations in connection with suspicious homosexual murders, said Alexandre Marcel, the press attaché of “Comité Idaho France”.

"Homosexuals are persecuted in 75 countries; and in 13 Muslim countries they are sentenced to death... We want to help them come to Europe and escape persecutions. Russian President Vladimir Putin should condemn these acts of barbarity," Mr Marcel has stated.

By signing the Rome Statute, Russia had undertaken to observe it, the lawyer Etienne Desulier, the author of the lawsuit, believes.

However, in the opinion of Kirill Koroteev, the lawsuit has no prospects, since Russia does not participate in the ICC. He has treated it as "delusional."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.