In Moscow, human rights defenders demand to stop criminal proceedings against editor-in-chief of "Tolyshi Sado"

Criminal proceedings in Azerbaijan against Ghilal Mamedov, the editor-in-chief editor of the newspaper "Tolyshi Sado", should be stopped. This was declared by participants of today's press conference, held in Moscow and entitled: "Persecution of Talysh people in Azerbaijan. Human rights defenders: criminal case against Ghilal Mamedov has political background."

Svetlana Gannushkina, Chair of the Committee "Civil Assistance", became the organizer of the press conference at the Independent Press Centre in Moscow. In the course of the press conference, the human rights defender expressed her confidence that the case against Ghilal Mamedov had been fabricated.

"Drugs were planted to him. Witnesses say it was done openly. Then, drugs 27 grams of heroin - were planted to his apartment," Svetlana Gannushkina stated.

In his turn, Fakhraddin Abbasov, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Shavnysht", stated at the press conference that "planted drugs abused the entire Talysh nation."

"Why should it be done to insult a man to plant drugs? What would the world think of the Talysh people? It's a shame. Actually, Ghilal Mamedov suffers from asthma, and he does not smoke. What kind of drugs in general can be discussed?" Fakhraddin Abbasov said. He has noted that Ghilal Mamedov is being kept at SIZO (pre-trial prison) in "intolerable conditions". He continued: "We demand that Ghilal Mamedov should be immediately released and receive medical treatment to safely recover."

According to Svetlana Gannushkina, provided to her by lawyer of Ghilal Mamedov, his client had been severely beaten, and he got "an injury to his leg and broken ribs." "I want to say that Ghilal Mamedov is a sincere good man, who in due time helped the deceased Novruzali Mamedov, a man with a tragic fate, a scientist, who was not guilty of anything wrong," Svetlana Gannushkina has emphasized.

Russian human rights defenders announced a collection of signatures on a petition in support of Ghilal Mamedov.