{"id":2661,"date":"2017-10-23T11:25:09","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T11:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2661"},"modified":"2017-10-24T11:31:53","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T11:31:53","slug":"gay-men-speak-out-about-azerbaijans-lgbt-crackdown-they-gave-me-electric-shocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2661","title":{"rendered":"Gay men speak out about Azerbaijan&#8217;s LGBT crackdown: \u2018They gave me electric shocks\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">By LYDIA SMITH<br \/>\n<em>The Independent<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Lawyers and activists say dozens of gay and transgender people have been arrested and detained<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Several men have come forward with firsthand accounts of an alleged crackdown on the LGBT community in Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One of the men, who remained anonymous, said he was detained for nine days and tortured.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThey gave me electric shocks,\u201d he said in an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rferl.org\/a\/azerbaijan-lgbt-crackdown\/28811188.html\">Radio Free Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThey beat me with a stick on my knees. I couldn\u2019t move afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dozens of gay and transgender people in Azerbaijan have been arrested, detained and forced to give up friends to authorities, according to lawyers and activists in the country.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Homosexuality was decriminalised in the majority-Muslim nation in 2000 and people are legally allowed to change their gender, but animosity towards <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/lgbt-rights\">LGBT<\/a> people still remains.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Some of those arrested have been subjected to beatings, abuse and forced medical examinations, lawyers said, although these reports could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Trans women have had their heads forcibly shaven, according to a report by British gay rights charity Stonewall.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One Baku-based activist, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that authorities were targeting \u201cmain streets, metro stations and LGBT-friendly placed like clubs, pubs and bars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Authorities in Azerbaijan have alleged that those arrested were involved in sex work, although nearly all cases the accused have denied such allegations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Some alleged they were coerced into confessing involvement in the sex industry.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One unnamed man told Radio Free Europe officials made him sign documents that \u201cwere already filled in\u201d as well as other blank documents, before questioning him about seeing \u201cclients\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cI told them I am not seeing clients, I\u2019m just gay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Azerbaijan has a poor record when it comes to protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Earlier this year, the country was rated the worst place in Europe for LGBT rights, with a 5 percent score compared to 76 percent in the UK.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The allegations follow an alleged anti-LGBT purge carried out by authorities in Chechnya earlier this year, in which hundreds of gay men were reportedly arrested, detained and tortured in the conservative republic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>By LYDIA SMITH The Independent Lawyers and activists say dozens of gay and transgender people have been arrested and detained Several men have come forward <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2661\" title=\"Gay men speak out about Azerbaijan&#8217;s LGBT crackdown: \u2018They gave me electric shocks\u2019\">[more &gt;&gt;&gt;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-azerbaijan","category-azerbaijan-human-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2663,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2661\/revisions\/2663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}