Baku: five youth activists go on hunger strike

Today, five youth activists kept in Baku under administrative arrest have announced a hunger strike in protest against torture and inhuman treatment. The start of the action was reported by their parents.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 29 about 50 young people gathered in downtown Baku to protest against incitement to suicide of Zaur Gasanov, a disabled Karabakh War veteran, who died from burns after self-immolation. However, the police dispersed the action and detained its most active participants.

Orkhan Eyubzade, an arrested activist of the "Musavat" Party tortured at the isolation facility for administrative detainees, located in the Binagadi District of Baku, his mother Rakhima Mamedova told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"Orkhan was handcuffed for a whole day to an unheated radiator and beaten. On December 31, I visited him and saw traces of violence on his arms and legs; he could hardly walk. I demanded explanations from the facility boss. He told me that 'my son is crazy', trying to justify the use of violence against Orkhan. However, my son believes that the authorities are taking revenge on him for his participation in Euromaidan in Kiev, where he criticized the Azerbaijani authorities for human rights violation in his interviews to Ukrainian TV channels," said the mother.