Rome, May 11 - Yuri Guaiana, an Italian activist for the 'Certi Diritti' LGBT rights association, was freed Thursday after being detained in Moscow while on his way to deliver a petition to prosecutors in the Russian capital over the treatment of gays in Chechnya, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Benedetto Della Vedova tweeted. One of the activists from the group LGBT Network, Nikita Safranov, speaking to ABC News from inside the police station where he and the four others were being detained, said they were arrested today while walking toward the offices of Russia’s Prosecutor General in central Moscow. The group's petition, which was launched on Change.org, calls for Russia’s prosecutor to investigate recent reports that over 100 men have been kidnapped and tortured by authorities in Chechnya as part of an alleged organized roundup targeting the gay community there. Amid an international outcry, President Vladimir Putin said on May 5 that he would speak to senior Russian law-enforcement officials about the matter, but suggested the accounts of abuse might just be "rumors."
Moscow police detain five protesters after they attempted to deliver a petition to investigate the status of LGBT rights in Chechnya to the Prosecutor General of Russia.