Horrific murder raises fears of rising homophobia
Source: AFP |
May 13, 2013, Monday
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A 23-year-old man has been tortured to death in Russia in an apparent homophobic attack, investigators said yesterday, amid growing fears by rights groups that anti-gay sentiments are on the rise in the country.
The victim's battered and naked body was found in the courtyard of an apartment building in the southern city of Volgograd last Friday morning, said a spokeswoman for regional investigators.
The young man had suffered numerous injuries, including to the genitalia, and had been sodomized with several beer bottles.
"He was raped with beer bottles and had his skull smashed with a stone," said Natalia Kunitskaya, a spokeswoman for the Volgograd region branch of the Investigative Committee.
She confirmed the attack was believed to have been a hate crime.
Two men aged 22 and 27 have been detained in connection with the attack, the Moscow-based Investigative Committee said in a statement. One of the suspects has a criminal history, it said.
The victim was said to have been drinking with the two men, apparently while celebrating Victory Day which Russia marks on May 9.
Regional investigator Andrei Gapchenko told Echo of Moscow radio on Saturday that the two men started beating the victim after he told them he was gay.
The Investigative Committee's tersely-worded statement said investigators had opened a murder probe, without commenting on possible motives for the killing.
Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993 and officially removed it from the list of psychiatric disorders in 1999.
Several Russian regions have outraged rights campaigners by approving local laws banning "gay propaganda" among minors.President Vladimir Putin has denied that Russia was violating gay rights.
The victim's battered and naked body was found in the courtyard of an apartment building in the southern city of Volgograd last Friday morning, said a spokeswoman for regional investigators.
The young man had suffered numerous injuries, including to the genitalia, and had been sodomized with several beer bottles.
"He was raped with beer bottles and had his skull smashed with a stone," said Natalia Kunitskaya, a spokeswoman for the Volgograd region branch of the Investigative Committee.
She confirmed the attack was believed to have been a hate crime.
Two men aged 22 and 27 have been detained in connection with the attack, the Moscow-based Investigative Committee said in a statement. One of the suspects has a criminal history, it said.
The victim was said to have been drinking with the two men, apparently while celebrating Victory Day which Russia marks on May 9.
Regional investigator Andrei Gapchenko told Echo of Moscow radio on Saturday that the two men started beating the victim after he told them he was gay.
The Investigative Committee's tersely-worded statement said investigators had opened a murder probe, without commenting on possible motives for the killing.
Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993 and officially removed it from the list of psychiatric disorders in 1999.
Several Russian regions have outraged rights campaigners by approving local laws banning "gay propaganda" among minors.President Vladimir Putin has denied that Russia was violating gay rights.
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