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Gay-rights demonstration erupts in melee in Moscow

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From the Associated Press

Police detained gay-rights activists here Sunday, among them European lawmakers, as counterdemonstrators hurled fists, eggs and insults.

The melee broke out as the activists tried to present a letter to Moscow’s mayor appealing the city’s ban on a march to mark the 14th anniversary of Russia’s decriminalization of homosexuality. The march would have been held Sunday.

Police grabbed about a dozen demonstrators and forced them into a bus, including Russian gay rights movement leader Nikolai Alexeyev. Police then hustled away others, including German Parliament member Volker Beck, as opponents threw eggs and shouted, “Moscow is not Sodom!”

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Marco Cappato, a European Parliament deputy from Italy, was kicked by one opponent as he spoke to journalists. Cappato began shouting, “Where are the police? Why don’t you protect us?” He struggled as officers hauled him away.

Cappato later told an Italian television network that he had been released.

The gay-rights activists appeared to number fewer than 100; roughly that many police were present.

Moscow police spokesman Yevgeny Gildeyev said 31 people were detained and most were released. He said two Italians were detained for jaywalking and a German was taken away by police to prevent him from being beaten.

But Beck, who was later released, told the Associated Press police beat him and the others and seized their passports.

The Interfax news agency quoted a Moscow city spokesman, Mikhail Solomentsev, as praising the “coordinated and polite actions of the police, who acted in strict accordance with the law.”

Many of the gay-rights opponents Sunday carried icons or other insignia of the Russian Orthodox Church, and one man wore the garb of an Orthodox priest.

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