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The protest follows the news that men suspected of being gay have been abducted, tortured and killed in the southern Russian republic.

Human rights charity Amnesty International reports that up to 100 men have been abducted, tortured and murdered in Chechnya. The reason these men have been rounded up and persecuted? They are all suspected of being homosexual.

Even more alarmingly, it is widely believed that the Chechen government are the ones who ordered these actions.

The Guardian reports that a spokesperson for Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya’s leader, refuted the allegations. His denial centred around his claim that gay people do not exist in Chechnya. He told Interfax news agency, “You cannot detain and persecute people who simply do not exist in the republic.”

He added: “If there were such people in Chechnya, the law-enforcement organs wouldn’t need to have anything to do with them because their relatives would send them somewhere from which there is no returning.”

Amnesty says: “The Chechen government won’t admit that gay men even exist in Chechnya, let alone that they ordered what the police call ‘preventive mopping up’ of people they deem undesirable.”

A demonstration against LGBT+ oppression is Chechnya is planned on Wednesday 12 April in London. Protesters will meet near the Russian Embassy at 5:30pm.

The event’s Facebook page says:

“London fails if it does not challenge this inhumanity. We MUST stand up to this. Bring banners, flags and most importantly bring yourselves to challenge this oppression and show solidarity with LGBT+ people in Russia.”

The organisers have informed the Metropolitan Police about the protest and are working with them to ensure it is a safe, legal and peaceful demonstration.

For full details of the protest, look at the Facebook page here.

If you can’t attend the march, but still want to take action, you can sign Amnesty’s petition to end this atrocity here.

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