Chechnya gay concentration camp destroyed, prisoners moved to unknown location

Prisoners at the largest concentration camp for gay men in Chechnya have been moved to an unknown location.

According to Novoya Gazeta, the newspaper that exposed the abuse of gay people in the autonomous Russian region, police have refused to participate in any official investigation.

When it was first revealed gay men were being kept in a concentration camp in Chechnya, former prisoners said they were kept in a former military barracks in Argun.

But when the Investigative Committee of Russia arrived there, with the location and description accurate to former prisoner testimony, the camp had been buried to its roof in construction debris.

Investigators say they have learned any prisoners are believed to have been moved to a Special Police Force training base in Terek – roughly 60km north in Argun.

However they have been denied entry, as ‘training is taking place’.

Activists fear prisoners have been moved to a new, unknown location.

Novoya Gazeta has also claimed of how Chechen security forces are exerting pressure on relatives of victims and fugitives.

The newspaper says authorities are ‘demanding they sign a statement with the standard text stating: ‘their son (or brother) [FULL NAME] left the republic to work in Moscow in late February. There is no connection to the Chechen police’.

Names of the four gay men killed in the region are also known to the newspaper. Three were killed on suspicion of homosexuality. One of these was a member of the National Guard of Russia. A fourth was detained on suspicion of extremism and also killed.

Read full story from Source: Chechnya gay concentration camp destroyed, prisoners moved to unknown location

Share

About Gay Today

Editor of Gay Today