Petition in defence of gays in Chechnya collects more than 145,000 signatures

The website "Change.org" has posted a petition to the Russian President, the General Prosecutor and the chair of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) with a demand to investigate the mass cases of violence and killings in Chechnya of representatives of sex minorities. According to the website "Change.org", the petition was posted "four days ago."

The petition contains a reference to the information of the "Novaya Gazeta" about detentions, torture and killings of residents of Chechnya, who were suspected of being gays.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 1, the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" reported about mass detentions in Chechnya of men suspected of unconventional sexual orientation. Later, the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" reported with reference to gays persecuted in Chechnya that in Argun, a "secret prison" had been arranged for people with unconventional sexual orientation.

"We demand to carry out the complete investigation into all information about severe cases of violence in Chechnya, punish the guilty persons and put an end to the practice of extrajudicial violence and murders in the republic. We should stop the lawlessness," the petition says.

As at 10:10 a.m. Moscow time of April 14, there are 145,487 signatures under the petition. Meanwhile, the author of the petition set a goal to collect 150,000 signatures.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) believes that the Russian authorities should intervene in the situation in Chechnya, from where activists report about kidnappings of gays and their torture with fatalities.

"The Russian authorities should investigate those horrible reports, identify the guilty persons and punish them," stated Michael Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), on April 13.

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