Azerbaijani authorities remain silent over murder of trans woman

Azerbaijani authorities have remained silent over the apparent murder of a trans woman near Baku, failing to confirm if an investigation into her death was underway.

According to local queer rights activist Alex Shah, the woman, identified only as ‘Aytan’, was found late on 12 March in Khojasan, on the outskirts of Baku.

A photo shared among the local trans women’s community seen by OC Media showed her body beaten lying on the side of the road.

‘The photograph of Aytan’s body was horrific and you can easily see the marks of torture’, Shah (who uses they/them pronouns) told OC Media.

They said that after writing about the killing on social media and tagging the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they were called in for questioning by police. Shah said an investigator informed them that they would need more information before they could open an investigation.

‘He told me I should add information about where the criminal case happened and who she was, and I should tell them Aytan’s “real name” [as written] on their identity card’, said Shah.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Anar Gafarov, told OC Media on Tuesday that the ministry had no information about the case, asking if details about it had been ‘shared on Facebook’. He insisted the ministry investigated all murder cases.