Human Rights Watch says it has confirmed that police in Russia’s Chechnya region rounded up, tortured, and humiliated dozens of gay or bisexual men during the spring of 2017 in “an apparent effort to purge them from Chechen society.” Reports Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty.
In a 29-page report released on May 26, the U.S.-based nongovernmental rights group said the “antigay purge” lasted from late February until at least early April — and that “it was ordered and conducted by officials in Chechnya.”
The report says the speaker of Chechnya’s parliament, Magomed Daudov, “seems to have played a key role in both securing and giving approval from the Chechen leadership to set in motion the purge.”
It says most of the purge victims interviewed by Human Rights Watch “reported hearing the police who held and abused them refer to Daudov and to orders he allegedly issued about violence against gay men.”
It also said three of the interviewed victims witnessed Daudov’s presence at unofficial detention facilities in Grozny and Argun, where the abuses were carried out.
Human Rights Watch said the purge began in Argun, about 18 kilometers east of Grozny, during the last week of February.
It says police who detained a young gay man found “intimate photographs and messages” on his mobile phone indicating he was homosexual.
“Using the information from the man’s phone together with information the man provided under torture, the officials established the identity of several of his gay contacts,” Human Rights Watch reported.
“The police officials reported their findings to their superior, who apparently raised it with Magomed Daudov,” it said.