Azerbaijan: oppositionist's son arrested on suspicion of killing his peer

Vasif Miralamov, 15, a son of Tazakhan Miralamli, head of the local branch of the oppositional Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), was detained in the Jalilabad District of Azerbaijan, located 220 km to the south of Baku, on suspicion of a murder. The oppositionist himself is in hospital with bodily injuries received at the Yasamal District Police Division, where he was brought after being detained during oppositional protests on April 2.

After a photo of Tazakhan Miralamli with injured face had appeared in the press, several pupils of the 10th form of School No. 7 of Jalilabad, where Miralamli's son was studying, said that "there was no place in their school for the oppositionist's son, and beat the boy. This happened on April 4; on April 5, the story repeated again.

"As I learnt from my relatives, the pupils of the 10th form had a knife in hand. They told my son also to take a knife. I don't know whether my son had a knife. During their fight, Dzhavanshir Gasanli, a pupil of the 10th form received a knife wound in his side and died from it. My son is currently kept at the District Police Division," Tazakhan Miralamli told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

He said that on April 5 "a workers' protest rally was organized" in front of his house; where employees of local budget-funded institutions were gathered; the event was conducted by the head of the district department of education.

Mr Miralamli said that this morning, as soon as doctors come to work, he is going leave the hospital and go to his district.

He said that he feared reprisals against other members of his family.

He was beaten at the district police division and has serious traumas of eyes and kidneys.

As for the killed schoolboy, according to Miralamli, he is the son of a former policeman.

The Jalilabad police division confirmed the fact of murder but refused to comment on the incident.

Let us note here that earlier in Azerbaijan oppositionists' children were exposed to persecutions for political activities of their fathers. Thus, after the 2003 presidential election, Mirfaik Mirgeidarli, director of the Baku School No. 249, insulted in the presence of pupils the son of Mirbaba Babaev, an activist of the "Musavat" Party, saying that he "deserved" exclusion from school. However, after protests of local public and international organizations, the director was dismissed.