Death Penalty News

Homophobic Chechen tyrant Ramzan Kadyrov made his first public appearance since rumours emerged that he had been hospitalised with coronavirus. The autocratic leader, who orchestrated the region’s brutal ‘gay purge’ , was reported to have earned the title of the first Russian official to fall seriously ill in the coronavirus pandemic . According two Russian state news agencies, RIA Novosti and Tass, Kadyrov was flown to a clinic in Moscow as his condition rapidly deteriorated. The digital news outlet Baza reported there had been damage to his lungs. Chechen officials refused to confirm the news or give any information as to his whereabouts, while the head of Chechnya’s state-run TV channel openly contested the reports of illness. RELATED |  Chechnya leader responsible for “gay purge” rushed to Moscow hospital for coronavirus After nearly a fortnight of rumours, Kadyrov finally reappeared in public on Tuesday. He was filmed at a government meeting in Grozny, Che...

Dozens of gay men and transgender people have been tortured and murdered at the hands of authorities with Ramzan Kadyrov's approval. Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic, has been rushed to a Moscow hospital with symptoms of coronavirus infection. Chechnya is part of the Russian Federation and Kadyrov was installed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kadyrov has overseen a horrific “purge” of LGBTQ people in the past few years. Gay men and transgender people have been tortured and murdered at the hands of authorities. “Ramzan Kadyrov has been brought to Moscow by plane with suspected coronavirus. He is currently under medical observation,” a source confirmed to the Russian news outlet Tass. Kadyrov’s condition remains unknown. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin recently returned to work after being released from the hospital for COVID-19 treatment. Chechen authorities — most of whom are former military members who serve as the Chechen leader Ra...

DECORAH, Iowa — South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has a message to countries with anti-gay laws on the books like Saudi Arabia and Russia: Better get used to dealing with a gay U.S. president. The gay 2020 presidential hopeful made the comments Saturday night during a town hall at Decorah High School in response to a question submitted by an audience member. The campaign staffer who read the question asked Buttigieg how he’d deal with international leaders from countries “like Saudi Arabia and Russia, where it’s illegal to be gay.” “So, they’re going to have to get used to it,” Buttigieg said. The audience, which was an estimated 1,000 people in a small town of 8,000, responded with roaring and sustained applause far greater than any other cheers throughout the evening. Other responses to Buttigieg’s lines about action on guns and removing President Trump from the White House were loud, but didn’t come close. "Saudi Arabia, one of the more than 70 countries wh...

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...

Donald Trump’s administration is pushing its version of religious freedom — as freedom to discriminate against those who offend one’s religious views — not only in the U.S. but overseas. At a State Department event on international religious freedom last week, Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said foreign policy that seeks to discourage homophobia amounts to religious persecution, ThinkProgress reports. “Our U.S. taxpayer dollars are used to discourage Christian values in other democratic countries,” he said at the Ministerial on International Religious Freedom, held in Washington, D.C. “It was stunning to me that my government under a previous administration would go to folks in sub-Saharan Africa and say, ‘We know that you have a law against abortion, but if you enforce that law, you’re not going to get any of our money. We know you have a law against gay marriage, but if you enforce that law, we’re not going to give you any money.’ That is a...

More than 70 countries around the world today still criminalize same-sex relations, and in some of them the death penalty may be applied. The UN’s independent LGBT human rights expert has warned of a brewing global crisis amid reports of homophobic purges in several countries. This year there have been a number of crackdowns against the gay community in a string of separate countries across the world. Human rights monitors in Russia have warned about a homophobic purge in the autonomous Chechnya region, with dozens of gay men reportedly killed by authorities and vigilantes while many others were forced to flee. More recently authorities in Egypt launched a crackdown on the gay community, sparked by a ‘moral panic’ over the waving of a rainbow flag at a music concert. Since the concert, Egyptian authorities began a ‘purge’ targeted at the country’s gay community, raiding homes and arresting more than 60 people. The state has also banned local media from mentioning...

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...

The number of countries criminalising consensual, private same-sex sexual activity between adults has decreased to 72, while the variety of law relevant to sexual orientation continues to expand steadily. On May 15, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) launched the 12th edition of its flagship publication, State-Sponsored Homophobia – A World Survey of Sexual Orientation Laws: Criminalisation, Protection and Recognition. This year the report is co-authored by Aengus Carroll and Lucas Ramón Mendos. Since its first edition in 2006, State-Sponsored Homophobia has offered a comprehensive compilation of useful and credible data on laws affecting people worldwide on the basis of their sexual orientation.  This release comes just ahead of the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia to be celebrated on May 17, and it is a fundamental resource in the hands of human rights defenders, researchers, civil society or...

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...