Petrelis Files

Al-Baghdadiya: 20 Iraqi Gays With
'Mutilated Genitals' At Hospital

This story ran yesterday on the niqash.org site, which covers Iraqi politics and society. As far as I know, this is the first account to report on these mutilations.

Here's an excerpt, emphasis added, about double-digit numbers of alleged gays showing up at hospital with mutilated genitals. The source for the mutilation claims is Al-Baghdadiya TV news:

While gay people in Iraq today enjoy far greater freedom than under the previous regime, persecution is rife and intensifying. According to the Iraqi Gay and Lesbians Society, a society which has a website but no firm contact details, 26 of its members have been killed since 2003 including two minors, 11 year-old Amir and 14 year-old Ahmed.

Recently “the righteous people" distributed three lists in Baghdad’s Sadr City containing the names of ten homosexuals. “Sinner: we will doom you,” declared the lists. Other slogans written in red on the city’s walls threatened the men with death and torture.

Security officials found three torture-ridden corpses of gay men in Sadr, Dawra and Karadah areas of Baghdad. Their killers were not identified.

Al-Baghdadiya, a satellite television channel based in Cairo and one of the few media outlets to have reported the attacks, broadcast a report on April 7 saying that 20 young men accused of homosexuality were taken to Ibn al-Nafis hospital in Baghdad with mutilated genitals.