<p>Journalists and activists held a rotating series of one-person pickets outside the presidential administration offices in Moscow on Thursday, August 3, protesting the potential deportation of an openly gay journalist to Uzbekistan.</p><p>Khudoberdi Nurmatov, who writes for Novaya Gazeta under the pen name Ali Feruz, was denied political asylum in Russia on Tuesday and ordered deported. Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the newspaper, called on fellow journalists</a> to support Nurmatov, who fears imprisonment and torture in Uzbekistan.</p><p>Russian media reported</a> that Nurmatov attempted suicide Wednesday in a bid to be sent to a hospital where he would feel safer than in the detention center where he is now held, according to one of his attorneys.</p><p>Radio Free Europe reported that one activist was detained during Thursday’s protest (seen in the video). Credit: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty via Storyful</p><br />
