Torture, abuse, and degredation are rampant in Azerbaijani prisons

Image by Arzu Geybullayeva

Content notice: This article contains graphic descriptions of torture, rape, and abuse.

Ill-treatment and torture in prisons in Azerbaijan are not uncommon. Instances of mistreatment have been repeatedly documented by local journalists as well as by the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), which issued a statement in July 2024 expressing its concern over the treatment of persons held by law enforcement agencies. Despite this, the practice remains a regular occurrence.

Nude photographs

In November 2023, numerous journalists and editors from the independent investigative journalism platform Abzas Media were arrested on bogus charges after investigating corruption in the Azerbaijani government. One of them, journalist and director of Abzas, Ulvi Hasanli, wrote a piece from the pretrial detention facility where he is being held, sharing his experience as a prisoner.

He revealed that Elnur Ismayilov, the head of Baku Detention Center, takes nude pictures of all newly arrived inmates, including transgender inmates:

What kind of fantasy, law and morality allows this? This man is a government official. He is not just some low ranking employee. He is a colonel. He has been managing the country’s largest prison for eight years. He also uses those nude pictures as a means of blackmail against the prisoners. Who knows in what other ways [Ismayilov] uses these pictures?

Hasanli’s observation adds more evidence to accusations that the state has a pattern of mistreating transgender inmates.

In November 2024, Meydan TV, an independent news outlet covering Azerbaijan, published an interview with a former transgender inmate Anna Taghiyeva, who spoke about her experience in prison. Taghiyeva told Meydan TV they were referred to as, “those with women bodies.” Taghiyeva recalled how Elnur Ismayilov used transgender inmates, to blackmail other inmates.

They would bring inmates into a room and have them stripped naked. They would then be beaten and forced into a confession. When that did not work, we were ordered to strip naked too and were used to threaten inmates. Because according to prison’s unwritten rules, if we touched an inmate it meant they were infected, and this is how they were threatened.

The prison management prided themselves in using transgender inmates as part of their “strategy,” said Taghiyeva in the interview.
“We were once paraded in front of a new group of hires, all dressed up in clothes picked out for us by prison management. I stood in the center of the room, and that is how we were presented to the new group of recently hired prison staff.”

In another recollection, Taghiyeva said, she was summoned to the building where Ismayilov was having a meeting with other prison directors. “I guess they were bored, so they brought us in and asked us to undress, giving us instructions to turn around, exposing our bodies and making degrading comments.” She added:

I have seen many things in my life. But what I went through in prison, is unlike anything I have seen before. I questioned their humanity. I once asked ‘aren’t you afraid of God’ and the prison guards laughed, saying in return, ‘Does God exist?’

Taghiyeva also mentioned how often transgender inmates are sold after their arrests. The price ranges. “I was told I would be sold, to another wealthy inmate,” said Taghiyeva. And there are others involved in the process as well. Taghiyeva explained that when transgender inmates are sold to other inmates, there is a third person who is in a cell when the buyer “meets his needs,” to confirm there was no touching involved.

The price starts at AZN 600 (USD 350). Similar instances were reported by other former transgender inmates. In 2022, JamNews wrote about a trans woman, Aidan Pashayeva, who was serving a sentence in a correctional facility and sold for AZN 500.

“We were already tired of living. And we were tortured so much we just wanted to commit suicide. I was sold into various departments and raped. And when we did not agree, they locked us in a punishment cell,” Pashayeva recalled in her interview with JamNews.

There is no data documenting the number of transgender inmates in Azerbaijan’s prisons. The existing legislation offers no legal remedies for them to seek recourse for the abuse they suffered. According to a report by the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Azerbaijan does not have national policies protecting LGBTQ+ rights. There are also no specific institutions fighting discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.

According to ILGA Europe, an international non-governmental organization advocating for LGBTQ+ rights and freedoms, Azerbaijan occupies the second to last place among 49 countries on the organization’s Rainbow Index, just behind Russia.

Treatment of LGBTQ+ people

In recent years, the Azerbaijan government has intensified crackdowns against LGBTQ+ people. In 2017, at least 83 people were detained by the police for being gay or transgender. The detainees reported being tortured and blackmailed. In the same year, at least four Azerbaijani citizens who identified as LGBTQ+ committed suicide.

In 2018, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported the Azerbaijan government was using Israel’s Verint Systems surveillance equipment and software to identify citizens’ sexual orientation through Facebook.

More than a dozen LGBTQ+ people were arrested in 2019, most of whom were transgender sex workers who were solicited and then arrested, according to reporting from Meydan TV and Minority Magazine.

In March 2021, Minority Magazine reported a new movement calling itself “Pure Blood,” which was mobilizing via Telegram to target LGBTQ+ people in Azerbaijan.

Then, in the summer of 2021, during Pride month, Minority Magazine documented more attacks against LGBTQ+ people.

For many LGBTQ+ individuals who face discrimination and violence, there is little recourse through the police or any official judicial channels.

The most brazen example of the state’s unwillingness to help the queer community was when popular blogger Sevinc Huseynova made open calls for violence against the LGBTQ+ community on social media platforms. She was never reprimanded for her actions despite ample evidence of her encouraging people to commit violent crimes against queer people. In one of her videos, Huseynova asked local law enforcement to look the other way on cases concerning hate crimes. “A sign is enough for us, just tell us, and we, the people, will slowly shove them away,” said the blogger. In another video, she called on Azerbaijani men to kill transwomen. At the time, the Interior Ministry said it was aware of the videos and was investigating. But no measures were taken.

However, Huseynova is not an isolated example. The anti-LGBTQ+ narrative in Azerbaijan is pervasive among politicians, celebrities, public figures, and even opposition activists. The same applies to the country’s civil society representatives, who prefer to remain silent when it comes to defending the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. In the past, Azerbaijani lawmakers also voiced support for adopting a homophobic law akin to the one adopted in Russia in December 2022 and the 2012 Russian anti-gay propaganda bill.

Back in prisons and detention facilities, torture goes on. “First I would only hear the sound of torture — slap, kick, punch, truncheon blow, insult, swearing. Then, I started witnessing firsthand ill-treatment and torture — beating, inmates handcuffed to the cell bars [handcuffed to the top of the cell bar, the other at the very bottom], one hand handcuffed to the top of the bed, the other hand handcuffed to the leg and held like this for twelve hours, beating with truncheon while inmate was handcuffed to the cell bars,” wrote Ulvi Hasanli, adding other examples of ill-treatment and torture that he has witnessed since his arrest in November 2023.

Meanwhile, thousands of international stakeholders are currently in the capital Baku, attending COP29. Miles away from the UN-protected “blue zone,” torture and ill-treatment continue in silence, despite the international spotlight.