■ The notorious al_Dura district of Baghdad where “gay child” was executed by police last month.

LONDON, May 4, 2006  –  Gay human rights group Outrage! has today accused Iraqi police of executing a 14 year old boy in the al-Dura district of Baghdad in early April.

Ahmed Khalil was accused of corrupting the community and creating a scandal because he had sex with men.

“Ahmed was, in fact, a victim of poverty.  He sold his body to get money and food to help his impoverished family survive,” said Ali Hili, an exiled gay Iraqi who is Middle East Affairs spokesperson for the London-based OutRage!.

“According to a neighbour, who witnessed Ahmed’s execution from his bedroom window, four uniformed police officers arrived at Ahmed's house in a four-wheel-drive police pick-up truck.

“The neighbour saw the police drag Ahmed out of the house and shoot him at point-blank range, pumping two bullets into his head and several more bullets into the rest of his body.”

Mr Hili is also coordinator of the Iraqi LGBT – UK group, consisting of more than 30 Iraqi gay exiles in the UK.  They are in contact with an underground network of gay people in Baghdad and other cities.

He was given details of Ahmed’s execution by his friends in Baghdad, including “J”, a university graduate and professional, who lives in the al-Dura area and who has spoken to eye-witnesses and Ahmed’s neighbours.

“According to our contacts in Baghdad, the Iraqi police have been heavily infiltrated by the Shia paramilitary Badr Corps,” Mr Hili said.

“They are seeking to impose a fundamentalist morality on the people of Iraq.

“The murder of Ahmed follows a pattern of Badr executions of suspected gays and lesbians in Iraq. Badr are using their members in the police to enforce the violent homophobia of Sharia law.

“Badr's policy is to murder gay people, prostitutes, unveiled women, sellers and consumers of alcohol and people with Sunni-sounding names.

“Inspired by the Shia spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who has issued a death fatwa against lesbians and gays, Badr is kidnapping and executing people suspected of homosexuality, even young kids.

“Our gay contacts in Baghdad condemn the sexual exploitation of young people. They are working to help rescue teenagers pressured into prostitution by their impoverished circumstances,” said Mr Hili.

Peter Tatchell, campaign coordinator of OutRage!, paid tribute to Mr. Hili and his gay friends in Baghdad for investigating the tragic murder of Ahmed and other gays and lesbians.

“They are taking great personal risks to expose the wave of fundamentalist-inspired homophobic killings,” he said.

“Documenting these brutal, barbaric murders takes time and money.  Our gay friends in Baghdad are surviving on tiny incomes.  We are trying to get them funding to cover transport, phone bills, internet and email access, and the purchase of a computer,” said Mr Tatchell.

Donations to help Iraqi LGBT in the UK and in Iraq should be made payable to “OutRage!”, with a cover note marked “For Iraqi LGBT”, and sent to OutRage!, PO Box 17816, London SW14 8WT, England, UK.

 ■  Ali Hili and the Iraqi feminist activist, Houzan Mahmoud, will address a public meeting, Women, Gays & Secularism in Post-War Iraq, co-sponsored by OutRage! and the Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association, on Friday May 19 at 7pm in Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1.

The Independent - UK:   Iraqi Police 'Killed 14-Year-Old Boy for Being Homosexual'.  By Jerome Taylor.  Human rights groups have condemned the "barbaric" murder of a 14-year-old boy, who, according to witnesses, was shot on his doorstep by Iraqi police for the apparent crime of being gay.  (May 5, 2006)

Ahmed’s Story – A Cruel, Barbaric Death.  By Ali Hili.  Ahmed Khalil was a likeable, playful 14 year old boy, born in the southern Iraqi town of al-Ammara.  The eldest child, he came from an uneducated family who lived in great poverty.   (UK Gay News, May 4, 2005)

“Every Day I Cry At Night”:  Focus on Teens Trapped In Commercial Gay Sex Trade in Iraq.  Hassan Feiraz, a 16-year-old boy, has started a desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in Baghdad, joining a growing number of adolescents soliciting in Iraq under the threat of street gangs or the force of poverty.  “Every day I cry at night,” Feiraz said.  “I’m a homosexual and was forced to work as a prostitute because one of the people I had sex with took pictures of me in bed and said that, if I didn't work for him, he was going to send the pictures to my family.” (UK Gay News, August 8, 2005)

Iraqi Gays Face Abuse and Murder.  As Iraq wrestles with its planned constitution, the country’s gays and lesbians face blackmail, rape and murder, a LGBT human rights group charged today.   (UK Gay News, August 16, 2005)
 

LINK

Iraqi LGBT - UK website