Azerbaijan: New wave of detentions among LGBT

Several LGBT Azerbaijanis have been arrested in Baku in what activists said was another coordinated raid on the community.

Information about the arrests remains murky, but Minority Azerbaijan, an advocacy group for LGBT Azerbaijanis, said in an April 2 statement that “police are trying to ‘hunt’ transgender people through the Internet.” The group identified more than a dozen people who were arrested, most of them transgender sex workers who were solicited and then arrested.

Sex work is illegal in Azerbaijan but is punishable only by administrative fines. Minority Azerbaijan reported that some of those arrested were charged with minor hooliganism and given sentences of 30 days in prison.

Advocates say that police in Azerbaijan regularly abuse other laws to target LGBT people. Read more via Eurasianet