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May
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Gay activists beaten up at Moscow demo
By Rachel Shields
Published: 28 May 2007
Peter Tatchell, the rights campaigner, and Richard Fairbrass, the lead singer in the Right Said Fred pop group, were assaulted by anti-gay activists in Moscow, as violence erupted at a protest calling for the right to hold a gay pride parade.
Nationalists chanted “death to homosexuals” while throwing kicks, punches and eggs at the protestors, who were trying to present a petition signed by 40 MEPs to Mayor Yuri Luzhkov asking him to lift the ban on the parade. The mayor has made openly homophobic remarks in the past, calling such marches “satanic”.
About 31 demonstrators were detained by police, although most were released by last night.
Mr Fairbrass was left with a deep gash under his left eye and blood pouring down his face after receiving several blows to the head, while trying to speak to journalists. Peter Tatchell, co-founder of the direct-action gay rights group Outrage! and member of the Green Party, was also badly beaten before being arrested by riot police.
Mr Tatchell described the eruption of violence at the banned protest by about 100 demonstrators, held to mark the 14th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Russia: “We arrived at City Hall and were immediately surrounded by neo-Nazis, who began to crowd and infiltrate our group. The Moscow police and riot squad gave them a free hand to attack people. I was punched in the eye, pushed to the ground, and kicked all over my body by six people. The riot police then moved in and arrested me, allowing my attackers to go free.”
Mr Tatchell accused the Moscow police of colluding with the anti-gay protesters, claiming: “There seemed to be a connivance between them. They only began arresting the neo-Nazis when it was clear that journalists had footage of the attacks.”
He was escorted to a local hospital to assess the extent of his injuries, then taken to the police station to make a statement, before being released without charge.
A German MP, Volker Beck, and a European Parliament deputy from Italy, Marco Capatto, were similarly subjected to punches before being arrested and questioned by police.
Gay activists were also attacked by right-wing protesters and arrested during a similar march last year. Some campaigners believe orthodox Christian and Muslim groups are encouraging the government to overlook such attacks.
The incident prompted Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, to announce she would raise the issue of human rights with President Vladimir Putin at next month’s G8 summit in Germany. “It has been shown once again today that human rights are systematically abused in Putin’s Russia,” she said in a statement.
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