Russia’s upper house, the Federation House, has approved a bill introducing fines for propaganda of non-traditional sex relations to minors, including in the media, on the internet and via viral adverts.

Some 137 senators voted for the draft law which introduces administrative liability and fines of up to a million roubles (over US$ 30,000) for promotion of homosexuality among children. One senator abstained from voting and no one voted against the legislation.

The controversial bill – which critics fear may spark a wave of homophobia in the country – was approved by the lower house, the State Duma, on June 11. The vast majority of the population – 88 % - is also in favor of the introduction of the ban, according to a poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM).

The draft law is not discriminative against LGBT people and is only aimed to protect minors, Federation Council speaker, Valentina Matvienko, emphasized on Wednesday, ahead of voting.

Unlike in the Soviet times, people with non-traditional sexual orientation are no longer prosecuted in Russia, she reminded.

“They are ordinary equal members of the society. As adults, they are entitled to decide how they want to live. But when it comes to minors [the ban on propaganda] is not someone’s whim, but a demand from the society,” Matvienko said.

Under the bill, individuals will be fined up to 5,000 roubles ($US 152) for such propaganda, officials will have to pay up to 50,000 roubles (about US$ 1,500) and companies – up to 500,000 roubles (about $US 15,000).

If law violators use the media or the internet for the promotion of non-traditional sex relations, they will face even harsher punishment. For instance, individuals will have shell out up to 100,000 roubles (about US$ 3,000), while organizations – a million roubles or face a 90-day suspension of activities.

Foreign citizens or stateless persons who violate the ban will face a fine or an arrest for up to 15 days followed by a deportation from Russia.

The law also defines what is considered the gay propaganda of non-traditional relations. It is the distribution of information aimed at forming non-traditional sexual concept in children, describing such ties as attractive, promoting the distorted understanding of social equality of traditional and non-traditional relations and also unwanted solicitation of information that could provoke interest in such relations.

The bill was slammed as “anti-gay” by gay rights activists both in Russia and abroad. The issue was raised again earlier in the week. The Russian president called on Western countries not to interfere with Russian internal affairs, speaking at a media conference during his trip to Finland.  He reiterated that the draft law is not about introducing any sort of sanctions on homosexuality and does not violate rights of sexual minorities.

“Some countries ... think that there is no need to protect children from this. We Do. We are not going to interfere,” he said. “But we are going to provide such protection the way that State Duma lawmakers have decided.”

To come into force, the bill has yet to be signed by the president.

A federal lawsuit filed against the city of Chicago and its local law enforcement agency alleges that two police officers sodomized a man with a revolver while he was illegally detained for several hours last year.

Delivery driver Angel Perez says in recently filed legal documents that he was assaulted repeatedly by Chicago Police Department Officer Jorge L. Lopez and another cop during a traumatizing experience last October that has prompted him to sue the city and those involved for excessive force, failure to intervene and emotional distress.

According to the lawsuit first reported Monday by Courthouse News, Lopez and a colleague locked Perez in a cell for several hours and sexually abused him with a handgun during the second of two days he spent in the custody of the Chicago PD.

The ordeal started for Perez on October 22, 212 when he was allegedly picked up by Lopez and another officer and taken in an unmarked police car to the city’s Harrison Street Police Station for interrogation.

"Two officers began assaulting the plaintiff with questions regarding robberies and drug dealers in the Taylor Street area," the complaint states. "Plaintiff responded that he did not know anything about robberies or drug dealings in the Taylor Street area and again and repeatedly requested that the officers call his lawyer. Plaintiff's lawyer was never contacted and the questioning continued. The officers were particularly interested in why the plaintiff had the telephone number of an individual by the name of 'Dwayne' in his telephone."

According to Courthouse News, Perez was released from police custody after two hours. One day later, however, he received a phone call from Lopez instructing him to meet at a nearby parking lot in order to sign some paperwork. Once again, Perez says he was assaulted and taken back to the police station where he was handcuffed to a bar and placed in ankle shackles by Lopez and another man identified only as “Sergeant.”

"Plaintiff was held against his will in the room for several hours handcuffed and shackled, and not free to leave the custody of the defendants,” the complaint continues. There Perez was allegedly in the presence of upwards of six officers who told him he’d be moved to another facility “to be raped by gang members” if he didn’t assist them.

The officer, it continues, “would plant evidence on him and his family members if he continued to refuse to cooperate with them. Still, further that if he did not cooperate they would charge him a conspiracy to obstruct justice.”

Perez then says he was told to make contact with the man named Dwayne that was brought up during the previous day’s interrogation. When he refused to make the phone call, the officers reportedly got violent.

“After a period of time refusing to call or text Dwayne, the officers began to pull and contort the plaintiff's body while he was handcuffed to the wall and shackled at his ankles, causing the plaintiff severe pain. At one point, the Sergeant sat on the plaintiff's chest and placed his palms on the plaintiff's eye sockets and pushed hard against them, causing plaintiff severe pain. The Sergeant also drove his elbows into plaintiff's back and head causing severe pain. Defendant Lopez was in the room at the time and did not intervene.”

Lopez eventually called up his acquaintance and attempted to initiate a drug deal, but only after things escalated between him and the officers.

"After several hours of verbal and physical torture, defendant Lopez and the Sergeant were alone in the room with the plaintiff,” the complaint continues. “The officers told plaintiff that if he refused to cooperate with them that they were going to give him a 'little taste' of what he would be getting at the Cook County jail. They put plaintiff over a chair and pulled down his pants and defendant Lopez said, 'I hear that a big black nigger dick feels like a gun up your ass.'”

"Then defendant Lopez and/or the Sergeant, knowing their actions created a strong likelihood of great bodily harm and mental anguish, inserted a cold metal object, believed to be one of officer's service revolvers, into the plaintiff's rectum, causing the plaintiff severe pain and humiliation. The two officers laughed hysterically while inserting the object into the plaintiff's rectum.”

"The Sergeant then said 'I almost blew your brains out.' The officers told the plaintiff that they would continue to insert the gun into his rectum until he cooperated with them.”

The complaint attests that Lopez soon began crying and agreed to cooperate with the officers. He then made the drug deal and broke off all contact with the officers while attempting to file a report with the Independent Police Review Authority.

"At no time on either October 20, 2012 or October 21, 2012, prior to plaintiff's seizure and torture, did the plaintiff commit a crime," Perez says in the complaint.

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of office in a sex-for hire case. Although the court banned him from holding office, the ruling cannot take effect until he has exhausted his appeals.

The 76-year-old former prime minister was sentenced by a court in Milan for paying an underage Moroccan teen for sex. He was further sentenced for abuse of office after he intervened to get the former nightclub dancer, Karima El Mahroug, released from police custody after she was arrested on suspicion of theft.  

Berlusconi and El Mahroug, popularized by the Italian media as "Ruby the Heartstealer," deny having had sex with each other.

Prosecutors had asked the court for a one year sentence for paying for sex with a minor, plus five years and a lifetime ban from holding public office for the abuse of power charge. Berlusconi still have two more levels of appeal before the sentence can be finalized.

 Even if Berlusconi ultimately fails to appeal the verdict, the septuagenarian might be deemed too old to be incarcerated in accordance with Italian law and will instead be put under house arrest. His conviction comes in the wake of a two-year trial that has captivated Italy with sordid accounts of alleged “bunga bunga” sex parties at Berlusconi’s private outside Milan while he was still acting as Prime Minister in 2010.

Monday’s conviction represents the latest in a series of legal battles which have bogged down the former prime minister. In May, an appeals court upheld a tax fraud conviction against Berlusconi, although the former PM is waiting to appeal a four-year sentence stemming from that case with Italy’s Court of Cassation.

Berlusconi had earlier lobbied to have both trials moved out of Milan on the grounds that he could not get a fair trial in the city. His lawyers have repeatedly claimed their client was being “persecuted” for his conservative politics. In March, the ex-premier was further sentenced to one year in prison for violating Italy’s secrecy laws after a court found he had made public a police wiretap concerning a political rival in 2005.

Although Berlusconi has held no official post since resigning from office in November 2011, he maintains considerable influence within the country’s unstable cross-party coalition which emerged following inconclusive elections in February.