Azerbaijani blogger Mekhman Guseinov complains to court of torture after detention

Today, Mekhman Guseinov, sentenced on the charge of defaming the Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), has given the testimony about beatings by law enforcers. He has also demanded to examine video records from the police building.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that after on January 9, he was detained for disobeying the police, blogger Mekhman Guseinov complained of torture. The MIA and personally Musa Musaev, the chief of the police department, accused the blogger of defamation, and Mekhman Guseinov was sentenced to two years of imprisonment. The Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) refused to change the verdict, but the Supreme Court (SC) partially granted the complaint by returning the case for reconsideration.

At the today's hearing in the Baku Court of Appeal, Mekhman Guseinov rejected the accusations of slander against the MIA and described the circumstances of his detention.

"I did not defame anyone. They grabbed me in the centre of Baku in the evening on January 9. And they forced me into their car. During 40-50 minutes, I was transported around the city with a plastic bag on my head. I was taken to a police station, and they were beating and humiliating me. I got my eyes covered with a kind of fabric, but I heard and felt that everything was filmed with a video camera, obviously for customers of my arrest. The process of my actual kidnapping and transportation of me around the city was for sure registered by video cameras 'Safe City', and all what happened at the police station was for sure registered by the police video surveillance cameras. If the court is objectively and sincerely intends to investigate the case, the judge should request and view those records," said Mekhman Guseinov.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.