Three French gay rights groups have accused the Russian republic of Chechnya of a policy of genocide towards gay people in a complaint filed at the International Criminal Court.

They have blamed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and state officials for a "wave of persecution". They cited the case of a teenaged male thrown out of a ninth-storey window, allegedly because of his sexuality.

Chechen officials have denied that gay people even exist in the republic. Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month backed an inquiry into the reported crackdown on gay people in Chechnya.

But the three French groups have rejected Russia's internal investigation, and want the International Criminal Court in The Hague to start work before Russia withdraws from its jurisdiction in November. Reports of arbitrary arrests of gay men first surfaced last month in the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Read more via BBC