10:54, 22 February 2018

Chechnya's PO refutes threats to journalists

The Prosecutor's Office (PO) has denied the fact of public calls to reprise the journalists of the "Novaya Gazeta", who wrote about persecutions of gays in Chechnya, rights defenders have stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 13, 2017, the "Novaya Gazeta" reported that an adviser to the head of Chechnya and Chechen theologians had openly called to violence against the newspaper journalists, who had written about persecutions of gays in Chechnya. In response to statements by Alexei Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of the "Echo Moskvy", in support of his colleagues from the "Novaya Gazeta", Salakh Mezhiev, the Chechnya's Mufti, and Shamsail Saraliev, a State Duma MP from Chechnya, promised that journalists would be retaliated.

Let us remind you that, according to a report of the "Russian LGBT Network" and the data of Elena Milashina, a special correspondent of the "Novaya Gazeta", there were three waves of gay detentions in Chechnya. The Chechen authorities responded that there were no gays in the republic.

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