The self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, has executed another man for allegedly being gay by throwing him from the top of a seven-story building, the U.K.-based Daily Mail is reporting.
Horrifying images and video have emerged following the brutal killing, including one showing the victim, who was reportedly in his 50s, plummeting in mid-air, still sitting on a white plastic chair on which the militants placed him. Claiming the man was "having a homosexual affair," ISIS militants reportedly threw the blindfolded man from the highest rooftop in Tal Abyad, Syria.
Editor's note: The Advocate has chosen not to embed the video of the man's murder. Screengrabs from the video, which may be disturbing to some viewers, are included below.
One photo shows the condemned man on the ground, apparently still alive after the fall. A man identified by press as an ISIS militant has his hand on the victim's shoulder. According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, he was murdered soon after by a crowd who used stones to beat him unconscious. In December, ISIS militants subjected another man accused of being gay to the same form of capital punishment.
ISIS began killing men accused of being gay late last year, starting with a 20-year-old man killed in Mayadeen, in Syria's Deir Ezzor province, and an 18-year-old, who was stoned to death in the city of Deir Ezzor. The men were known as opponents of ISIS, and their supporters say ISIS used the allegation that they were gay to execute them.
This latest antigay atrocity from ISIS comes less than a month after two other men were similarly slain for allegedly being gay. The executions were part of an onslaught of ISIS killings last week, which also included women who were stoned to death for alleged adultery, as well as two accused thieves who were crucified, then shot to death.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, young men and boys are encouraged to watch the regular executions. One report said that children as young as 3 years old are among the spectators for stonings, floggings, beheadings and crucifixions.
