Five supporters of Chechen gays detained in Moscow

In Moscow, five activists, including Marina Dedales, Alexandra Alekseeva, Nikita Safronov, Valentina Dekhtyarenko, and Italian citizen Yuri Guaiana, have been arrested near the metro station "Mayakovskaya" on suspicion of holding an unsanctioned public action, the "OVD-Info" reports.

According to activist Irina Yatsenko, those five persons met near the metro station with empty boxes, in which they planned to collect appeals to the General Prosecutor's Office in connection with the harassment of gays in Chechnya. Then the activists planned to bring the collected appeals to the reception of the General Prosecutor's Office, the edition reports.

"We were carrying signatures with the demand to investigate the crimes against homosexuals in Chechnya to the reception of the General Prosecutor's Office. When we moved away from Triumfalnaya Square, we were detained with the motivation that we were allegedly holding an unsanctioned action," the "RBC" quotes Nikita Safronov, an activist of the "Open Russia", as saying.

Nikita Safronov has also added that in Chechnya, the petitions posted on the platforms "Change.org", "All out" and "Avaaz" collected about two million signatures in defence of gays, the "RBC" reports.

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. According to the "Radio Liberty", another similar prison, where members of sexual minorities are beaten and humiliated, is located in the Chechen village of Tsotsi-Yurt.

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