A group of civil society organisations and human rights defenders protested in front of the building of the Russian Embassy because of unresolved murder of Russian activist Yelena Grigoryeva, requesting the Russian authorities to find and punish perpetrators.
Representatives of civil society organisations came to the protest holding banners in Russian and Serbian: “Stop killing lesbians”, “Russian lesbians are our sisters”, “We remember Yelena Grigoryeva”, “Punish the Killers”, “Stop the terror on LGBT persons in Russia”.
Women in Black representative Miloš Urošević said to the journalists that a few days ago Yelena Grigoryeva was first strangled and then her dead body was stabbed, which shows “the extent to which men persecute women who are not heterosexual”.
According to Urošević, their message to the Russian authorities is “to find and punish Yelena Grigoryeva’s murderers as soon as possible, to stop implementing the law passed in 2013 which prohibits the so-called ‘homosexual propaganda’ and to enable free and unimpeded activity of all those people who work towards the protection of human rights of all those who a re different”.
He added that Yelena Grigoryeva was not fighting only for the rights of LGBT persons, “but she was also protesting because of the Russian occupation of Crimea and she was calling for the liberation of political prisoners.”
Urošević reminded that Russian activist Natasha Estemirova was murdered ten years ago, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered 13 years ago and systematic persecution of LBGT person in Chechnya happened two years ago.
“All these murders had several common denominators – they are enabled by the regime of President Vladimir Putin, which creates the atmosphere of impunity of violence where all these murders are possible. None of the perpetrators has been punished and everyone who thinks critically or differently from the governing regime in Russia is a target of persecution, threats and murders”, said Urošević.
Source: Glas Amerike; Photo: Anton Vaganov/Reuters
