TGEU Countries: Kyrgyzstan They released the victim so she could find the money. asked the men to leave the premises, saying that their When she later informed them that she could not obtain actions were illegal. They agreed to continue talking the money, they posted the video on the Internet. The outside, on the other side of gate. The attackers told the victim filed a complaint with the police, and the case is activists that if they did not stop the event, they would currently under investigation. All the perpetrators have call more people and create a real threat to their security. been identified, but their lawyer is pressuring the investigator to drop the charges, threatening to have him fired When participants were taken to the police station as should the case proceed to trial. The investigator has witnesses, they were crammed into the police car and also exhibited signs of transphobia towards the victim. had their hands twisted and hair pulled. They spent more than five hours at the police station without access to 3. Z., a 16-year-old transgender woman, was engaged medical aid, toilets, water or food. The police also de- in sex work in order to earn a living. In 2014, she was manded that several participants show them their gen- illegally detained several times by law-enforcement ital so they could identify those who were transgender. officers (in Kyrgyzstan there is no criminal or adminis- The officers also swore at and threatened the activists trative liability for sex work). On one of the occasions, and refused to allow them legal representation. In addi- she was verbally, physically and sexually assaulted. On tion, they showed the witnesses’ testimonies to the at- another occasion, she was extorted and then raped by a tackers, who attempted to note the activists’ personal group of police officers. information. Members of Kalys and Kyrk Choro were Members of the radical nationalist Kalys and Kyrk Choro movements illegally breaking into the IDAHOT event organised by Labrys treated very differently at the station: they could get In general, police institutions in Kyrgyzstan are trans- up, move around and eat and drink. After the incident, phobic, and not just in regards to sex workers. Police of- a criminal case under Article 234 of the Criminal Code ficers allow themselves to initiate “check-ups” of trans (hooliganism) was opened. CCTV footage of the arson attack on the Labrys office people’s genitals, as occurred after an attack at an IDAHOT event in 2015, when participants were brought to 2. On 3 April 2015, the office of Labrys was attacked: the police station in Bishkek. three Molotov cocktails were thrown into the yard of the human-rights organisation, two of which caused a fire. For the record Labrys’s CCTV cameras recorded two unknown persons 1. On 17 May 2015 in Bishkek, members of the radical who attacked the office. Fortunately, the building was not nationalist Kalys and Kyrk Choro movements illegally damaged by the fire. The nature of the attack shows that broke into an event Labrys had organised to celebrate the attackers were planning arson. This incident is not the IDAHOT. The attackers broke the lock on the gate and first in the history of the organisation: its activists have broke into the cafe. They threatened and insulted the ac- been subjected to threats of physical violence numerous tivists, and there was a scuffle in which one of the activ- times, while the office building has been pelted with rocks. ists was injured. LGBTIQ activists called the police and + 54 + + 55 +