RUSSIA
Arrested Gay Pride Activist Asks World for Help
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Alekseev:
“All this is nothing else that the
good old method of the KGB” |
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MOSCOW, May 27, 2005 – From inside the Tverskoya police station, where he is being detained, Nikolai Alekseev – one of the Moscow Gay Pride organisers and its spokesperson – has issued a statement asking for international support and for the immediate release of all the gays activists currently being held. There is confusion as to exactly how many are being held. But Scott Long of Human Rights Watch, who is in Moscow, has confirmed that there are 15 being held at Tverskoya and is checking reports that others are being held elsewhere in the city. “We ask the western democracies to put a maximum pressure on the Russian Authorities to release us immediately,” Mr. Alekseev pleads in his statement. “The protocol written by the police is completely falsified and all the Western MEPs and MPs who were with us can confirm. “We are accused of having blocked the streets and insulted the police, which is a complete lie. We were on the pavement and we never insulted the police. This has never been our methods,” he insists. “All this is nothing else that the good old method of the KGB. We can see that the agents of FSB are at the police station (ex KGB). The same people who were this morning at the hotel trying to prevent us to leave,” he says. “We ask the German Chancellor Merkel, who is currently heading the European Union Presidency, to raise the situation with President Putin and we also ask the other leaders of the G8 and the EU to speak publicly on this issue.” “We are very thankful to Volker Beck, Sophie In't Veld, Vladimir Luxuria and Marco Cappato who came and supported us in Moscow – and, of course, all the others. “They can show to the world that gay and lesbian rights do not exist in Russia. They can show to the world that freedom of expression is not only about politics “Please remember the words of Sophie In't Veld at yesterday’s press conference. ‘There is no such thing as human rights light in which you can just avoid LGBT issues,’ she said. ‘There is no place in Europe for people who do not respect the rights of their citizen. Euroepan democracies should ban Mayor Luzhkov and his people from entering their countries, as they did to officials from Belarus’ “We ask for your help and support now, more than ever,” Mr. Alekseev’s statement concludes.
Posted: 27 May 2007
at 15:00 UK time |
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