Minor son of Azerbaijani oppositionist Gyulalyev is accused of hooliganism

In Azerbaijan, criminal charges of disorderly conduct were presented to the minor son of Oktay Gyulalyev, the press secretary of the oppositional National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF). The father treats the charges as far-fetched and associates them with his own political and human rights activities.

On July 30, the father and son were summoned to the Chief Police Department of Baku in connection with the incident that occurred on September 23, 2013, when the teenager was attacked and stabbed.

According to the activist, in the course of the investigation of this case, policemen came to their home and began interrogating the minor, who had not yet recovered after surgery, in violation of the law in the absence of his parents. They also sought a confession that it was the boy who had initiated the fight.

Later, it was stated that the case was under personal supervision of the head of the Minister of Internal Affairs (MIA). According to Oktay Gyulalyev, this provocation was intended to put pressure on him, since then he worked as the press secretary of Djamil Gasanli, the Chairman NCDF and the main oppositional presidential candidate at the last year's October 9 election.

Oktay Gyulalyev is a member of the Public Alliance "Azerbaijan without Political Prisoners", which is protecting the rights of political prisoners. He is also the coordinator of the headquarters of the Civil Society "Kura", which is defending the rights of the people, who had suffered from floods of the Kura and Araz Rivers in 2010, and which revealed facts of embezzling funds allocated for the liquidation of the disaster.