Moscow court finds gay Russian travel agent guilty of ‘extremism’ posthumously

A Moscow court has found a gay Russian travel agent posthumously guilty of involvement with an LGBT “extremist organisation”, organising its activities, and using minors to distribute pornography, independent media outlet Mediazona reported on Friday.

Andrey Kotov, who ran the travel agency Men Travel, was found dead in his cell in a Moscow pretrial detention centre in December. Human rights activists believe his death was the result of torture. 

Kotov, who was detained last November and placed in a punishment cell for 15 days for running tours marketed at Russia’s LGBT community, said he was beaten and tasered during a police raid on his home.

“Some 15 people showed up in the middle of the night. I was beaten, punched in the face, hit on the legs. I am bruised. I didn’t put up any resistance. I was extremely surprised at what was going on. I had to say what they wanted,” Kotov said afterwards.

The authorities informed Kotov’s lawyer on 29 December that her client had committed suicide. Kotov, who was accused of organising gay tours, including a boat trip on the Volga, and a package tour to Egypt, denied all the charges against him, but as no request for his case to be dismissed was submitted by his legal team, he was tried posthumously.

Independent Russian Telegram channel Mozhem Obyasnit, citing a lawyer familiar with the trial, said in October that one witness in the case had joined one of Kotov’s tours “at the behest of the authorities to collect materials for an LGBT propaganda case against Kotov”.