“Moderate” Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Egypt: LGBT mass arrests, victims suffer beatings, abuse and forced medical examinations

Ah yes, those moderate Muslim countries showing the West the way to our future.

The New York Times reports on it but never mentions the reason, the motive: Islamic law.

….recent mass arrests of gay and transgender people in Azerbaijan, Egypt and Indonesia, saying that the authorities in those countries had violated international law by detaining, mistreating and torturing them.

The roundups — of about 80 people in Azerbaijan, 50 in Egypt and 50 in Indonesia over the past few weeks — do not appear to be connected, but United Nations officials said they exposed patterns of discrimination and abuse that also damage broad development goals.

The authorities in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, have detained more than 80 people identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender since mid-September, reportedly subjecting some of them to beatings, electric shocks and forced shaving, Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.

The police resorted to other forms of humiliation, including forcing many of those arrested to undergo medical examinations and then releasing the results or details of their medical status to the news media.

Mass arrests of LGBT people in Azerbaijan condemned by human rights groups

Victims have been subjected to beatings, verbal abuse and forced medical examinations, their lawyers say

By Caroline Mortimer, Umberto Bacch, October 14, 2017:

Human rights groups have urged the Azerbaijani government to release dozens of LGBT people from jail after reports of mass arrests and abuse.

International advocacy group ILGA said it was hard to gauge the scale of the alleged crackdown – reported to have stretched over the past two weeks – but said the country was well known for its poor treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.

Lawyers for some of those arrested said their clients had been subjected to beatings, verbal abuse and forced medical examinations, the group said.

The reports could not be independently verified.

“There is no justification for this indiscriminate targeting of people perceived to be members of the LGBTI community,” said ILGA’s executive director in Europe, Evelyne Paradis.

“(We) are worried about the fate of the victims of these raids, and are calling for the immediate release of anyone still in detention,” she added in a statement.

The government’s Ministry of Internal Affairs has responded to criticism by activists in the past by claiming that the raids were not a specific attack on LGBT people but instead a crackdown on prostitution.

An unnamed official told Azerbaijan news website Caucasian Knot: “In our country, sex minority members have never been persecuted”.

British gay rights group Stonewall said the authorities had claimed the arrests were part of a crackdown on prostitution, but activists said LGBT people had been singled out.