The Chechnya Prosecutor’s office and other law-enforcement agencies started investigation after reports of mass detentions in the region representatives of nonconventional sexual orientation. This is stated in the Monday, April 17, in the response of the Prosecutor General of Russia at the request of RIA Novosti.
In comments to the Agency noted that the Prosecutor General’s office received complaints from “Novaya Gazeta” and the Commissioner for human rights in Russia Tatiana Moskalkova. This clarifies that the Ombudsman in his request wanted to ensure that the circulation of publications received in the SIP.
The material of “Novaya Gazeta” about the persecution and murder of Chechen residents suspected of homosexuality, was published on 1 April. It was argued that the situation was provoked by the contact with the media information about the intention of activists of the GayRussia.ru (head of the project Nikolai Alekseev) to hold their shares in a number of cities in the Caucasus.
A few days after the article in the Central mosque of Grozny, a meeting was held with participation of 15 thousand people. It was reported that Adam Shahidov, the counselor of the head of the Republic, publicly accused the team of “New” in the slander and called him an enemy of the faith and the homeland. Following the event, a resolution was adopted in which, in particular, spoke of the insult “of the secular foundations of the Chechen society and dignity of Chechen men”. “We promise that retribution will overtake the true instigators, wherever and whoever they were, without a limitation period”, — noted in the resolution.
In addition, the Council, the head of Chechnya for the development of civil society and human rights, commenting about the persecution of gays, issued a statement, stating that the information does not have “even indirect evidence”.
April 13 on the website of “Novaya Gazeta” published a statement about the threats in address of the magazine’s staff. The next day the press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin is opposed to any “methods of influence, which would be contrary to the law.” He also noted that if someone believes the publication of “Novaya Gazeta” smear or distort reality, then he should use the “prescribed by law and challenge the invocation of the responsibility of the authors of those or other published materials.”