A missg Rsian man may have been swept up Chechnya's "gay purge."
Contents:
- TWO CHECHEN GAY MEN 'MORTAL DANGER' AFTER ARRT RSIA
- TWO GAY MEN ARE “MORTAL DANGER” AFTER BEG ARRTED BY RSIAN THORI
- CHECHEN POLICE TA 20 DISTURBG BID TO TRACK DOWN GAY TORTURE VICTIMS’ PARENTS
TWO CHECHEN GAY MEN 'MORTAL DANGER' AFTER ARRT RSIA
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In social media posts reviewed by CNN and imag released by thori, although Lee drs women’s clothg and makp some pictur and vios, Lee wr that he intifi as a gay male. But an alleged eyewns has now ma an explosive new claim: Kobyshev, the weeks after his disappearance, was beg held ptive a Grozny police cellar, where he claimed to have been btally beaten over spicns that he was gay.
The claim by Maksim Lapunov, a gay Rsian man currently sug Rsia the European Court of Human Rights, adds to the substantial ttimony of what rights groups ll a vlent purge of sexual mori by police Chechnya, which is led by Kreml-backed strongman Ramzan Kadyrov. Kadyrov and other Chechen officials ny accatns of an antigay crackdown, and the Rsian ernment has said found no evince substantiatg Lapunov’s claims. Maksim Lapunov is the only person to publicly claim he was abducted and tortured the alleged crackdown Chechnya agast homosexuals.
TWO GAY MEN ARE “MORTAL DANGER” AFTER BEG ARRTED BY RSIAN THORI
Two gay Chechen men have been arrted by Rsian police and forcibly returned to their homeland. * jamie gay missing *
In April 2017, the pennt Rsian newspaper Novaya gazeta published a groundbreakg report tailg Chechen thori’ alleged mpaign agast gay and bisexual men Chechnya over the prev months. Several sourc Chechnya’s gay muny subsequently told RFE/RL that the crackdown began earnt December 2016 -- around a month after Kobyshev arrived the maly Mlim regn.
Kobyshev’s relativ, who have been rmed of Lapunov’s claim to have seen him ptivy, say they were unaware that Kobyshev might be gay. “There was never any discsn of homosexualy, ” his nephew, Sergei Tov, told RFE/RL. He also said he learned that Andrei had “land there bee he was gay.
In the same statement, Lapunov claimed he and Kobyshev discsed the beatgs that another man beg held on spicn of beg gay had been subjected to. Lapunov and other gay men have alleged that after beg abducted by police Chechnya, they were forced to ll gay acquatanc om their ntacts list and lure them to the clutch of the police. LGBT rights activists subsequently said that they had received nfirmatn that Bakayev was taed by thori amid the alleged antigay mpaign.
CHECHEN POLICE TA 20 DISTURBG BID TO TRACK DOWN GAY TORTURE VICTIMS’ PARENTS
Kravchenko, who said that Kobyshev himself never dited to relativ that he might be gay, quoted an vtigator workg on the se as sayg of the missg massr: “He’s not a man. No crimal vtigatn was lnched based on the accatns ma by Lapunov, the lone alleged victim of the Chechen antigay crackdown to file a formal plat wh Rsian thori.
Rights groups say that while Lapunov took great risks by g forward, the fact that he -- like Kobyshev -- is an ethnic Rsian ma the move ls dangero than for ethnic Chechens due to the ep social stigma that homosexualy rri their society.