More than 100 gay men have been detained in concentration camp-style prisons in the Russian region of Chechnya, according to reports by local newspapers and human rights organisations.
The arrests are being made as part of a widespread anti-LGBT purge in the area. The prison camps are the first to be established for LGBT people since the Second World War.
The information was first published by the Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper, which reported that men were being arrested and kept in concentration camp prisons where violence and abuse is commonplace.
Repressions against the LGBT community began after an application for a gay rights march in the Chechen capital of Grozny.
A prison camp has reportedly been established in the town of Argun, according to eyewitness testimonies.
The report was published on the 1 April, prompting the spokesperson for Chechnya's Interior Ministry to dismiss the claims as an "April Fools' joke".
The press secretary for Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic, described the report as "lies" and stated there were no gay people in Chechnya.
"If there were such people in Chechnya, law-enforcement agencies wouldn't need to have anything to do with them because their relatives would send them somewhere from which there is no returning," he said.
Human rights organisations have corroborated the information published by Novaya Gazeta.
"For several weeks now, a brutal campaign against LGBT people has been sweeping through Chechnya. Law enforcement and security agency officials under control of the ruthless head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, have rounded up dozens of men on suspicion of being gay, torturing and humiliating the victims," a report by Human Rights Watch states.
"Some of the men have forcibly disappeared. Others were returned to their families barely alive from beatings. At least three men apparently have died since this brutal campaign began."
snide-remark on April 10th, 2017 at 17:54 UTC »
>The press secretary for Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic, described the report as "lies" and stated there were no gay people in Chechnya. "If there were such people in Chechnya, law-enforcement agencies wouldn't need to have anything to do with them because their relatives would send them somewhere from which there is no returning," he said. Just let that sink for a second.
AnIntoxicatedRodent on April 10th, 2017 at 17:24 UTC »
*“In Chechnya, the command was given for a 'prophylactic sweep' and it went as far as real murders,” Novaya Gazeta reported, saying the authorities searched for closeted gay men partly by posing as men seeking dates on social media websites.* *The newspaper also noted that none of the men detained had been open about their homosexuality in a society where it is still strictly taboo.* *Kadyrov's spokesman brushed off the report, saying no one in the republic is homosexual. “You cannot arrest or repress people who just don't exist in the republic,” Alvi Karimov said to Interfax. “If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them since their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return.”* Well that's disturbing
DieMilkweed on April 10th, 2017 at 16:49 UTC »
Not the first since WWII. Maybe the first in Europe, but Best Korea has had them for a very long time. IIRC China at least did for a while.