Speaker Valentina Matvienko says people with non-traditional sexual orientation are no longer prosecuted. Credit: RIA Novosti
Three Dutch citizens have been detained by police in Russia on charges of gay-propaganda, according to a report by the Russian LGBT Network.
The arrest is alleged to have happen in Murmansk city in North Russia.
Details are minimal at press time. The names of the three have not been reported. It’s not known whether they are tourists or temporary residents in Murmansk.
“Police compiled reports on the violation of rules of stay in the territory of Russia and the violation of the law of the ‘propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors,'” the Network reports in a post on its Facebook page.
The Network says the three were released by police and that a court hearing will be held at 9am (Moscow time) on July 22.
The Network will provide legal assistance to the trio.
Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a law earlier this month, banning “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations.”
The law characterizes propaganda of “non-traditional sexual relations” as “spreading the information in order to form non-traditional sexual desires in children, describing such relations as attractive, promoting the distorted understanding of social equality of traditional and non-traditional relations and also unwanted solicitation of information that could provoke interest to such relations.”
The law could effectively ban all public displays of homosexuality.
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