Police began rounding up homosexuals in December and have been sending them to a 'concentration camp' where they have been tortured. Two men have died as a result of torture at a camp inside a former military facility in the town of Argun.
It is the same camp where more than 100 people said they were detained in another apparent crackdown on the homosexual community in 2017.
Igor Kochetkov, program director at the Russian LGBT Network, said the new wave of persecution started at the end of the year when Chechen authorities detained the administrator of a social media group popular with LGBT people. Mass detentions began after authorities got hold of the contacts on his phone.
Kochetkov said, "Persecution of men and women suspected of being gay never stopped. It's only that its scale has been changing."
Despite several victims coming forward to speak about their time in detention, Chechen authorities continue to refute the charges and have always denied accusations of killing and torture-- even after one man came forward to talk about the time he spent in detention two years ago in Chechnya.
Maxim Lapunov said he was detained by unidentified people on a street in the Chechen capital, Grozny, in 2017 and kept in custody for two weeks.
While there, he was repeatedly beaten. He was let go after he signed a statement acknowledging that he was gay and was told he would be killed if he talked about his time in detention.
The Russian LGBT Network has been monitoring the situation in Chechnya and continues to help victims of detention and torture.
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