The mutilated, headless body of a gay Syrian refugee has been found in Istanbul.
Muhammad Wisam Sankari, who arrived in Istanbul last year, was last seen leaving his house on the evening of 23 July. His headless and mutilated body discovered two days later around the central district of Yenikapi.
One of his friends told Kaos GL:
“That night Wisam left the house. We were already anxious because of the threats. We told him not to go but he said he was going out for 15-20 minutes. He didn’t come home all night. The next day, we panicked when we couldn’t reach him. We went to the Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (ASAM). They directed us to Fatih Police Headquarters. We did not even know how to get there or what to say.
“On Sunday police called us. We went to Yenikapi with Rayan. They had cut Wisam violently. So violent that two knives had broken inside him. They had beheaded him. His upped body was beyond recognition, his internal organ were out. We could identify our friend from his pants.”
Another of his friends told Turkish LGBT rights group Kaos GL that he had previously been threatened by violent male gangs, and he had tried to obtain refugee status in another country because he felt his life was in danger in Turkey.
Five months ago, Sankari had been kidnapped, beaten, and raped by a gang of men, but he managed to escape. He reported the incident to police, but his friends said “nothing happened”.
Kaos GL say there has been a rise hate crimes against gay people in Turkey in recent years, including five murders, 32 attacks and three suicides in Turkey last year. Activists say most such crimes go unreported, and there have been at least 50 such murders in the last six years.
Homosexuality is not a crime under secular Turkish law, but homophobia remains widespread in the majority Muslim country.
Under the presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish state has become increasingly Islamist and the Gay pride rally planned for earlier this year was banned under the guise of “safeguarding security and public order”.
In June, Turkish police fired rubber bullets into a crowd of LGBT activists attempting to hold a protest in Istanbul.
