Death Penalty News

Following an initial report last week that Chechnya has launched a new crackdown on LGBTQ people in the region, activists have come forward to claim that there have already been fatalities. According to this new information two people have been killed and further 40 have been detained purely because of their sexual orientation. It has been reported that the two deaths were caused by the use of torture by police in the Russian republic. Both men and women have been detained in this new wave of persecution, The Russian LGBT Network have said, following the detention of an administrator for a group for LGBTQ people on the social network VKontakte. Much like the first wave of persecution back in 2017, police threatened the victims’ families with violence if they spoken out about the crackdown. Authorities have also reportedly taken documents from the prisoners so they cannot escape the region while being held at a jail in the town of Argun. “The persecution of me...

Iraq sentenced more than 600 foreigners including many women and dozens of minors in 2018 for belonging to the Islamic State group, the judiciary said on Monday. Iraq declared "victory" over IS at the end of 2017 after a 3-year war against the jihadists, who once controlled nearly 1/3 of the country as well as swathes of neighbouring Syria. Around 20,000 people suspected of links to IS have been arrested since 2014. Judicial spokesman Abdel Sattar Bayraqdar said Monday that "616 men and women accused of belonging to IS have been put on trial" in 2018 and sentenced under Iraq' s anti-terrorism law. They comprised 466 women, 42 men and 108 minors, he said. Bayraqdar did not, however specify the punishments. Under Iraq's anti-terrorism law courts can issue verdicts, including death sentences, against anyone found guilty of belonging to the jihadist group, including non-combatants. In April, judicial sources said that more than 300...

Chechnya’s leader President Ramzan Kadyrov Chechnya’s leader President Ramzan Kadyrov has defended honour killings of gay men. Speaking to HBO, the Chechen president said that he would defend the rights of families to murder their gay relatives. ‘Honour killings’, or the murder of relatives due to the belief that the victim has brought shame to the family, are illegal in Russia and Chechnya. Kadyrov has ruled the Muslim republic since 2007 after the assassination of his father. In the TV interview, he declared: “If we have such people here, then I’m telling you officially, their relatives won’t let them be, because of our faith, our mentality, customs and traditions. “Even if it’s punishable under the law, we would still condone it.” Kadyrov not only rules over Chechnya, but also runs the Akhmat Fight Club gym and the Akhmat MMA promotion in the Chechen capital of Grozny. The interview with HBO was to promote the country’s sports industry – with num...

President Ramzan Kadyrov The names of 27 people slaughtered in a single night by Chechen authorities have been published. The secret mass execution is thought to have seen up to 56 people killed – all without trial. Novaya Gazeta , a newspaper based in the region, has published the list of names it claims President Ramzan Kadyrov’s government killed. The executions were all carried out in Chechnya’s capital, Grozny, on the night of 25 January, the newspaper claims. According to the strongly anti-Putin publication, mass arrests and executions in the Muslim region were triggered by the killing of a policeman on 16 December 2016. It reports that the victims were shot without trial, then the bodies were “taken to various cemeteries, including Christian ones, where they were buried in hastily dug graves”. The outlet has spent months investigating illegal detentions in the area. The same newspaper broke the story that the region is rounding up and persecutin...

Vladimir Putin and Ramzan Kadyrov (right) Chechen police have told parents of gay men to 'sort it out' or the state will intervene A gay teen was pushed off a 9th floor balcony by his uncle after he outed to his family in Chechnya. The 17-year-old boy, who we will call Alec, was killed to ‘wash the shame’ of having a gay relative. Chechen police have told parents of gay men to ‘sort it out’ or the state will intervene. The survivor, given anonymity by liberal Russian magazine Snob , spoke about his experiences of growing up in Chechnya. He revealed when he opened up to his religious leader about his homosexuality, ‘horror, disappointment and disgust arose on his face’. The mullah said to him: ‘As a Chechen and as a man I do not want to see you here. Neither in the mosque, nor in this district. I want you to leave now, because everything you said is the most disgusting thing you can find out. ‘I hope your relatives have the dignity to wash away...

"You can’t detain and harass someone who doesn’t exist in the republic." Dozens of gay men are held in a former military headquarters in Argun, Chechnya. Reports from inside Chechnya reveal that more than 100 gay men detained in a recent “purge” are being held in a former military headquarters in the town of Argun, where witnesses say they were subjected to interrogations, violent torture, and fear that others who remain missing have been murdered. An application for a Pride parade resulted in the crackdown, reports Novaya Gazeta , a Russian newspaper which interviewed three witnesses and survivors who said they were held in a secret prison set up in the town of Argun. Describing it as a “concentration camp,” one man who was let go said officials subjected him to violent “interrogations” and attempted to get him to reveal the names and locations of other gay men. They seized his mobile phone then went after his contacts — even those who are not gay. Accord...

The State Duma is not considering overturning the death penalty moratorium, a member of the Lower House law committee has said in a television interview. "At the present moment the issue of introducing the death penalty, including the death penalty for terrorism, is not being considered in Russia," MP Raphael Mardanshin (United Russia) told the Rossiya-24 TV channel. The lawmaker added that he agreed additional counter-terrorist measures were needed, but the death penalty was not the best choice for this. "For terrorists it is often an honor to die while carrying out an attack. Therefore they can actually consider execution as a good thing," Mardashin said. "When we use the measures that exist today, like prison sentences for life, it is more difficult for terrorists to contemplate the consequences of their actions for many years," the MP noted. The comment came soon after the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov again urged Russian a...