Mother of defendant in case of attempt on Ganja Mayor states pressure on her son and his advocate

The mother of Yunis Safarov, accused of an assassination attempt on Elmar Veliev, the Mayor of the city of Ganja, has announced that the well-known advocate Elchin Sadygov had been removed from defending her son. According to her story, her son is under pressure to testify against the Sadygov.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 3, 2018, an attempt on Elmar Veliev was committed. Law enforcers treated it as a terror act. A suspect, Yunis Safarov, a 35-year-old native of Ganja, was detained.

On September 11, Leilakhanum Ismailova, Safarov's mother, sent out her "Appeal to the Public" to Azerbaijani mass media professionals.

According to the woman, her son was tortured for more than 25 days after detention.

"Every day he was tortured by electric current applied through the thumb-tied wires. In this way he was forced to sign all the far-fetched ... testimonies," the mother has stated.

"Only on the 21st day, on August 13, the advocate Elchin Sadygov was allowed to visit my son; and we had a hope that he wouldn't be tortured any more. On September 1, my son gave his testimony that he had been tortured after detention and that ... he had been beaten ... to his advocate. After that, strong pressure was exerted on Sadygov; he received murder threats, if he didn't refuse to defend my son," Mr Ismailova wrote.

According to her story, on September 6, Yunis Safarov was presented with a resolution on the removal of Sadygov from the defence. Moreover, a complaint was filed against Sadygov to the Bar Association demanding to punish him.

According to Safarov's mother, at present her son is physically violated with the aim to testify against Sadygov.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 12, 2018 at 02:14 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.