Chechnya draws up list of singers who may be homosexual
Kavkaz.Realii reports, citing employees of human rights organizations working in the Chechnya, that Chechen security forces have drawn up a list of cultural figures that may be homosexual.
"Two or three dozen names of cultural figures, mainly singers, are on this list. They became known from people who were kept in secret prisons for gays," said a worker at one of the local NGOs.
According to an employee of another non-governmental organization, at least three gay detainees were asked about the artists on the list.
"These people, whom we assisted in leaving the republic, said that the lists contain the names of famous singers. We know that some of them left Chechnya fearing for their lives," he added.
A source from another organization also referred to reports from two people held in a secret gay prison in Argun.
Earlier it was reported that 25-year-old singer Zelimkhan Bakaev disappeared in August during a stay in Grozny (Chechnya, Russia).
On May 26, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch published a report on the persecution of gays in Chechnya. Human rights activists cited three people in their reporting who had been detained on suspicion of homosexuality, who claimed that Magomed Daudov oversaw abuse of homosexuals in secret prisons, accompanied with "his own offensive remarks." The organization also stated that it considers Daudov to be one of the organizers "cleansing" the republic of gays.