Azerbaijani GPO: police put no pressure on blogger Magerramova

Law enforcement bodies of Azerbaijan refute the reports that the blogger Nilufer Magerramova, who died after falling down from the balcony, had been subjected to pressure by the police because of her publications. According to prosecutors, she often quarrelled with her parents and underwent medical examination.

According to the today's official release of the press service of the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Azerbaijan, in order to define the cause of her death, a medical examination was appointed, and the necessary investigatory and operative actions were performed.

"In the course of the initial investigation it was found that Magerramova often argued with her mother for no particular reason; she left for Baku without notifying her parents. Due to an onset of psychological disorders, she had repeatedly undergone in Baku and Mingyachevir medical and psychiatric examinations. On April 16, she took her medical-psychiatric examination in Baku, and received the appropriate medical care. The recipes and sedative drugs prescribed to Nilufer Magerramova were presented to investigators by the members of her family," says the statement of the GPO of Azerbaijan.

The GPO has also noted that in the course of the inquiry "the media reports that she had been summoned to the city police department and exerted to pressure there were not confirmed."

The reports about the pressure on the deceased were also refuted by the Mingyachevir city police chief Alesker Badalov. "As the Chief of the Police I declare with all responsibility that we had known nothing at all about this girl. Only on the day of her suicide, I learnt about her place of residence. Any pressure on her is out of question. Everything that is written about it in the media has nothing to do with reality," the police chief told the "Caucasian Knot".

The uncle of the deceased girl (her mother's brother) Leisan Yusubov said that Magerramova did not commit suicide. "She had a little dispute with her mother. She went out to the balcony; she was crying there, and having lost consciousness fell down from the balcony," the Azerbaijani service of "Radio Liberty" quotes Yusubov as saying.

He also confirmed the reports that a year ago she ran away from home. In addition, Yusubov noted that "she was a member of a religious sect."

The girl was notable for her "liberal views," the oppositional newspaper "Azadlyg" quotes an unnamed fellow student of Magerramova.

"Teachers often criticized Nilufer because of her position and behaviour. Nilufer said that the environment put pressure on her. When she was summoned to the police, they told her, 'Don't bring new fashion to the city.' She was also reproached for her writings on the blog. That is, Nilufer was pressed and harassed at every turn for her thoughts," said the student.

According to his story, once after Magerramova's demonstrative refusal to take part in a public event at the Polytechnic University, the bosses "complained to her uncle Leisan Yusubov, who works at the city department of education; and then Nilufer had problems in her family."

Social networks also spread information that the deceased was a member of the civil movement "Nida", seven activists of which have been arrested in the past two months. However, the press secretary of the "Nida" Elmin Badalov denied Nilufer Magerramova's membership in the movement.