Five LGBT activists protesting in Moscow against the mistreatment of gay men in Chechnya have been detained

Five people were detained following an attempt to submit a petition with two million signatures which calls on Russia to investigate the ongoing reports of detention, torture and murder of gay men in Chechnya.

The LGBT activists who were detained were planning to deliver boxes of signatures to the prosecutor general’s office in central Moscow.

They met at a Moscow metro station near to the general’s office, but were soon thereafter accosted by police who accused them of holding an unsanctioned protest.

One of the activists detained is an Italian citizen, while two others were members of the organisation known as Open Russia which was labelled “undesirable” by the prosecutor general.

The activists will be charged for an administrative violation, Open Russia indicated, on the grounds that they were holding a public event without permission.

Avaaz, a global campaigning organisation, declared the activists’ detentions as a ” blatant attempt by Russia to intimidate those standing up for gay people, [which] will only draw more global attention to the horrors unfolding in Chechnya.

While police did not give any details on the group being held to RBC newspaper, photos surfaced online which appear to show police taking boxes labeled “Justice for the Chechen 100”.

Yesterday, Irish Senators met with the Russian Ambassador in Dublin to express their horror at the treatment of LGBT people in Chechnya.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Vladimir Putin to launch an investigation into the gay purge which Chechnya’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has publicly denied.

However, Putin continues to evade discussing Chechnya in detail, labelling the reports from Novaya Gazeta and other sources as “rumours”.

Eye-witness reports from anonymous sources have revealed that gay men who are detained by authorities in Chechnya are being tortured with electric shock, beaten, humiliated and murdered.

Gay men who have fled Chechnya revealed that families are being brought to the concentration camps and told to ‘honour kill’ their sons.