LGBT survivors of torture in Chechnya speak out

Chechen authorities are forcing parents to kill their own gay children, reveals shocking new testimonies from escapees.
One anonymous testimony starts: ‘We’ve always been persecuted, but never like this,’ reports France 24.
‘Now they arrest everyone. They kill people, they do whatever they want,’ he continues.
The testimony reveals Chechen authorities are hoping to ‘cleanse the nation’ of homosexuality.
They torture people using electricity and depriving them of food.
But shockingly, one survivor reveals: ‘They tell the parents to kill their children.
‘They say “Either you do it, or we will.”
‘They tortured a man for two weeks [then] they summoned his parents and brothers who all came.
‘[The authorities] said to them: “Your son is a homosexual – sort it out or we’ll do it ourselves.”‘
According to the eye witness, the family took him to a forest and killed him.
They buried him there ‘but didn’t even give him a funeral,’ he said.
A spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin denies the claims of torture and murder.
He says the witnesses are deciding to remain anonymous because there is no proof.
Just today, Russian police rounded up LGBT activists protesting the persecution of gay men in Chechnya.
A group of ten protesters were arrested near the Anichkov Palace in St Petersburg.