VORONEZH, October 24 (RAPSI) – LGBT activist failed to bring the Voronezh Police Department to liability for negligence that allowed an LGBT rights protest to be overrun by an angry mob.

A city-sanctioned protest against the homosexual propaganda ban, what the activists reffered to as the “homophobe law”, in Voronezh was overrun before it could start by a mob of anti-gay citizens.

The police report that about 150 people rushed the LGBT activists as soon as they formed a group near a city spot where the protest should have taken place. The activists were pelted with snowballs and then beaten. Two activists sustained injuries as a result. The protest organizers sought to hold the Voronezh Police Department liable for failing to break up the mob.

The court deemed the lawsuit unfit for review, as most of the claims were filed under the Civil Code, whereas they should be reviewed according to the Criminal Code.

The Voronezh police stated that it took all possible measures to maintain order during the event, and that the organizers themselves decided to cut it short, upon failing to “muster enough support from the citizens.”

On June 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill banning the promotion of homosexuality toward minors.

The law seeks to levy fines for such offenses from 800,000 rubles ($24,000) to 1 million rubles ($30,500) for legal entities, from 4,000 rubles ($120) to 5,000 rubles ($150) for individuals and from 40,000 rubles ($1,220) to 50,000 rubles ($1,530) for officials. Legal entities may also be suspended for 90 days for disseminating gay propaganda among children.

In a June survey by the state-run VTsIOM pollster, 88 percent of those polled expressed support for a ban on the “propaganda of homosexuality among minors.”