![]() Two Weeks Later No Sign of Criminal Case Opened On the evening of November 11, four burly young men wearing hoods brutally attacked two lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights activists – Zoya Matisova, 42, and Nadezhda Aronchik, 23. Both were taking part in an inclusive family conference in Moscow. Matisova, a psychologist and board member of the Russian LGBT Network, told me that the assailants approached them not far from the conference venue as she and Aronchik on their way to the metro. The men first asked if they had anything to do with the conference and without waiting for an answer, sprayed something in Matisova’s eyes and punched Aronchik in the face, shouting homophobic slurs. Then they fled. “My eyes were burning and the pain was just hellish,” Matisova said. [...] Source: Dispatches: Human Rights Watch [23 November 2017] |