Asia-Pacific

Russian gay leader seeks asylum in Belarus

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-09-17 22:08

MOSCOW - The leader of a Russian movement for the rights of sexual minorities, Nikolai Alexeev, has applied for political asylum in neighboring Belorussia, Interfax news agency reported Friday.

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Alexeev, who arrived on Friday in the Belorussian capital Minsk, told Interfax he was going to ask the country's authorities for permission to stay there indefinitely as a political dissident.

Alexeev also said he would recall all the appeals he had submitted to the European Human Rights Court in 2006-2008.

On Thursday, Alexeev organized a week-long Second International Conference of the Queer People in the second largest Russian city of St.Petersburg after Moscow City Hall customarily refused the gay and lesbian activists to stage a so-call "pride parade" in the capital.

On Friday, Russian anti-gay activists led by Kirill Frolov announced they were going to move against the conference in St. Petersburg, which they called a "bunch of perverts".

"We are going to use only lawful measures like pickets, marches and media events," Frolov told Interfax.

He thanked Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov for banning the gays from the capital.