LGBTQ Activists Say There Is Still An Ongoing "Gay Purge" In Chechnya

Months after first reporting on the abuses against LGBTQ people in Chechnya, Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta has reported that dozens of people were executed in Chechnya without having had a trial. The paper published a list of 27 names of people who it alleges were killed in the purge.

A spokesperson from the Russian LGBT Network told International Business Times UK that the organization can corroborate Novaya Gazeta's report, though it's unknown how many of those killed were LGBTQ people.

"As far as we know, the information in the Novaya Gazeta regarding 27 people being killed is true," the representative said. "With regards to the sexual orientation of those killed, as far as we know there are homosexual people in this list, but not all of them at all."

Novaya Gazeta's report says that the alleged victims were not formally arrested, and were executed in extra-judicial killings in January.

In addition to the report, activists have come forward to claim that the human rights abuses against LGBTQ people in Chechnya remains ongoing.

Enrique Torre Molina, a communications manager at LGBTQ rights organization All Out, told Pink News that Chechens have contacted the Russian LGBT Network hotline to say that arrests are still being made.

In April, Novoya Gazeta first broke the report that gay and bisexual men in Chechnya were being put into concentration camp-like prisons in a "gay purge" sweeping the region.

“Over 100 men were hunted down, arrested, imprisoned, and tortured by state authorities, because they were believed to be gay," Molina said in a statement to Pink News. "At least 6 were murdered. Others were returned to their families barely alive, with their captors encouraging relatives to carry out honour killings."

Last month, U.S. Congress passed a resolution to condemn the anti-LGBTQ violence, while the State Department and Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, have spoken out against the abuses. The White House, however, has yet to make a public statement regarding the reports.