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Anwar Basim Saleh, a 21-year old Iraqi gay activist from Baghdad, used the coordinator of a “safe house” for homosexuals working alongside the Iraqi LGBT organization prior to his arrest in February 2009. During his detention, he was badly beaten up, tortured and subject to be sentenced to death for being gay and for his role in the LGBT association.

Photo: Bilal Hussein/AP

In the Iraqi capital, in an interview given to the newspaper The National a militiaman declared:

“We see homosexuality as a serious disease that is spreading rapidly among the young men in the community, after it has been brought here by American soldiers. These are not Iraqi habits or habits of our community, and we have to wipe them out”.

During a visit to the jail of an Iraqi LGBT volunteer, Anwar handed over a letter with a desperate appeal: “save me from the death penalty”. Iraqi LGBT immediately paid the authorities 5,000 dollars in bail to obtain the his release on April 14th, 2009.

Leaving Iraq, he first looked for a new home in Paris, where he didn’t get any help from the French institutions, associations and authorities.

He is now in Holland where he has applied for asylum.

EveryOne Group makes an appeal to the Dutch authorities to award him immediate refugee status.
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