Dagestan resident complains of illegal arrest of his brother in Azerbaijan

Umar Garisov, resident of village Karanayaul, Kayakent district, complains that his brother Osman Garisov has been in Azeri pre-trial prisons since February 10. Today, Umar Garisov has relayed that the incident happened at the Azeri customs house where the brother was returning home from his pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

"Osman is a bus driver. The group was delayed in Saudi Arabia because one of the pilgrims died. There was a line of automobiles at the Azeri-Russian border. The brother took a place there but 30 minutes later a policeman approached him and ordered him to drive the bus back. The brother abided by the instruction but some time later the policeman came up once more with the same order. The brother drove the bus back again, but when the policeman approached him once again the brother asked him to leave him alone," relayed Umar Garisov to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"It seems there is a practice at the customs house whereby each driver pays the policemen to simply leave him alone. The tariff is 100-500 roubles, but the brother did not know about it and this is why he was shifted back in the line," said Umar Garisov.

According to him, the policeman started to offend his brother and finally took him to the local police station. During a search, they found four tablets of medicine called "Jaguar" in Osman Garisov's jacket pocket.

"Such tablets are in free sale in Iran and Dagestan. My brother bought them in the Iranian border town of Astara. No claims were laid to the brother either at the exit from Iran or at the entry into Azerbaijan, but after the arrest the policemen announced that the tablets contained marijuana totally weighing 1200 mg, and this is why a criminal case was going to be initiated against him on the fact of smuggling drugs to Azerbaijan, their storage and use. Ironically, one tablet of "Jaguar" weighs only 100 mg," said Umar Garisov.

"I went to Azerbaijan. I went there, met with Yadigar Kuliev, chief of the investigation department of the district station. He said that my brother might get a long term in prison but if I brought him 15,000 dollars that day or the next day the charge of smuggling could be lifted. I told him that my brother was not guilty of anything and we did not have this kind of money," relayed Umar Garisov.

In his opinion, Azeri policemen keep violating the law. "They exert psychological pressure on my brother, no witnesses have been interrogated, there was no lawyer or interpreter during his interrogation, the documents are compiled in the Azeri language, the Russian party has not been notified. When I laid my claims investigator Yunisov Rashad said that it was not Russia or Dagestan and they had their own laws," relayed Umar Garisov.

On February 16, he went to Baku and addressed the Russian embassy. "I was received by lawyer Tatiana Bogdanova. At first she promised to help me but then she recommended me to address Kuliev again," notes Umar Garisov.

According to him, the pilgrims who travelled together with his brother sent a letter to Sergei Mironov, chairman of the Federation Council of Russia, Boris Gryzlov, State Duma speaker, Russian ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, and Ravil Gainutdin, chairman of the Russian council of muftis, with an appeal to help Usman Garisov.

In her turn, Tatiana Bogdanova, lawyer of the Russian embassy in Azerbaijan, has told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Usman Garison is really arrested by the police of the neighbouring state. "Specific charges have been laid, everything will be sorted out by the court," says the lawyer.

Muraddin Kurbanov, official of Dagestan representative office in Baku, states that he has talked to the investigating officer. "A criminal case has been initiated, we are going to help our compatriot in any way we can," promised Kurbanov.