21:15, 14 May 2018

Russian authorities tell about unsuccessful search for gays in Chechnya

An LGBT rally. Photo Sputnik / Vadim Zhernov https://sputnik-georgia.ru/Tbilisi/20171106/238066336/Sportivnyj-LGBT-skandal-v-Gruzii-akcija-protesta-snova-proshla-v-Tbilisi.html

The checks of information about the persecution of gays in Chechnya have reached a deadlock, as the authorities failed to find any members of the LGBT community there, Alexander Konovalov, the acting Russia's Minister of Justice, has announced.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in April 2017 the "Novaya Gazeta" reported about mass detentions and killings of men suspected of non-traditional sexual orientation in Chechnya.

The Chechen authorities treated these materials as a provocation, but residents of Chechnya said that they had known about executions of gays long before the newspaper's publication.

On April 3, the head of the "Russian LGBT Network" reported that over the year, the organization had helped 114 people suspected of non-traditional sexual orientation to leave Chechnya; 92 of them are already outside Russia.

In late April, the US mission to the OSCE noted that the inquiry into the crimes against members of the LGBT community in Chechnya has stalled.

The Radio Liberty adds that numerous statements by Chechen officials that incite hatred towards sexual minorities have remained without any reaction of the federal Russian authorities.

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