Member of the Human Rights Council of Chechnya: I would not even consider the application for the murder of a gay man

Kheda Saratova, a member of the Human Rights Council under the head of Chechnya, commenting on Novaya Gazeta's reports of detentions and murders of gays in the republic, said that Chechen society "will not condemn" "even an extreme measure against such people." This was reported by the radio station "Moscow speaking".

According to Saratova, law enforcement agencies and "the entire judicial system" will "treat with understanding" the murder of a gay man by his relatives, "will not rock the boat and protect this person."

“I haven’t received a single application, but I wouldn’t even consider it,” she said.

“I am a Chechen, I live in this society, and what you say is even worse than war. <...> I assure you that in our Chechen society, a person who respects himself, traditions and customs, he himself will persecute and do everything so that there are no such people in our society, ”the radio station quotes Saratov.

The RBC publication, in turn, turned to the press service of Ramzan Kadyrov and the Chechen Interior Ministry for comment. The press secretary of the head of Chechnya said that he "heard" for the first time about the information from the publication of Novaya Gazeta, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs suggested that it was an "April Fool's joke."

• On April 1, Novaya Gazeta reported, citing sources, that more than a hundred gays had recently been detained in Chechnya, three were killed. The newspaper linked the mass detentions to an attempt by LGBT activists to coordinate public actions in the cities of the North Caucasus, which provoked an aggressive reaction among local residents.