Vice News documentary shows viewers inside Argun prison in Chechnya, where gay men were allegedly tortured

Vice News is the first international news organisation to gain access to Argun Prison in Chechnya, where gay men were allegedly rounded up and tortured as part of an unprecedented 'anti-gay purge' by the conservative Muslim republic's law enforcement.

Along with a small team of three, consisting of a video journalist, shooter and producer, Hind Hassan, correspondent for Vice News Tonight on HBO, was able to interview, on camera, one of the alleged victims, and Ayub Kataev, head of the ministry of internal affairs for Argun and the warden of the prison.

"We had been working on this project with a video journalist in Russia who had been cultivating a relationship with Kheda Saratova, the head of Ramzan Kadyrov's Human Rights council," Hassan told Journalism.co.uk.

"I think because of the international pressure on Chechnya in the media, they have been feeling the heat a little bit more, especially with the Russian investigation team looking into the allegations made against them, so I think they wanted to explore a different way of responding to this.

"They wanted to say, 'come in and we will show you the locations of where these alleged tortures took place and prove we have nothing to hide'."

However, Hassan explained that Vice News' access to the prison was arranged through regional authorities who were keen to demonstrate their innocence, saying they don't believe gay people exist there. Even though the journalists were able to operate freely in the region, their whereabouts were closely monitored during the course of the shoot.

"It was a very unique experience because no foreign journalists had been to the prison or had interviewed officials, but we were very aware that it was going to be highly controlled," she said.

"They knew where we were all the time, and the only people we were to speak to were officials authorised by Saratova. We were warned that if we spoke to any victims or locals on the ground in Chechnya, the situation there was so difficult that it could potentially be a risk to their life.

"But it was still an opportunity to push the officials on the allegations that had been made and see the location first-hand."

Vice News interviewed four Chechnyan gay men who said they had been tortured for their sexuality. One of them even watched the footage from Vice News and certified that he had been beaten in that location by the prison's warden.

"We have personally met these Chechnyan gay men who said they suffered abuse or torture inside Chechnya, so clearly the government has got it wrong in terms of what the make up of their society is, and they are sticking to the line of outright denial," Hassan said.

"When we were given a tour of the prison by Kataev, he lined up his men and asked them 'have I ever told you to torture some sort of gays?' and they said 'no', and he turned to us and shrugged.

"He repeated the same things, like 'I've never seen a gay person myself', and said that if he met a gay person he wouldn't want to touch them never mind torture them – so it the level of disdain against gay people is clear."

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