22 May 2017, 10:55
Tatiana Moskalkova sends her staff to check information about gays in Chechnya
Employees of the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner in the Russian Federation will come to Chechnya to check the information about harassment of the LGBT community. After receiving the necessary information, Tatiana Moskalkova intends to visit the republic herself.
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.
"I plan that my office, employees specializing in matters of criminal procedure, will visit the republic, and then depending on the results, I myself may arrive there. I need to go being armed with some information," Tatiana Moskalkova said on the air of the "Russia-24" TV Channel.
According to the Russian Human Rights Commissioner, she already has some such information. However, she will go to Chechnya when the "full package" necessary for a dialogue with the authorities is collected. "I got negative answers to those official requests that I made," reported Tatiana Moskalkova as quoted by the "Interfax".
Tatiana Moskalkova has announced that she "received from the edition ('Novaya Gazeta') the names of people who allegedly suffered reprisals because of their non-conventional sexual orientation and sent an appeal to the chief of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF)," the RIA "Novosti" reports.
Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.
