Rights defenders persuade Talekh Bagirzade to stop hunger strike in jail

Talekh Bagirzade, the leader of the "Muslim Unity" Movement, has agreed to stop his hunger strike, the co-chairs of the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Inmates-Believers (CPRIB), who visited Talekh in an Azerbaijani prison, have informed.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 27, the "Muslim Unity" issued a statement that Talekh Bagirzade and other convicted activists of the movement had faced unprecedented pressure. One of them, Abbas Guseinov, told his relatives that he had been on hunger strike since February 3, and Talekh Bagirzade – since January 31.

On February 15, Rovshan Akhmedli and Eldaniz Guliev, the co-chairs of the CPRIB, visited the Gobustan Prison.

Rovshan Akhmedli told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Guliev and he met Talekh Bagirzade, the activist Djabbar Djabbarov and Movsum Samedov, the head of the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan.

"We urged Talekh Bagirzade to stop his hunger strike. We handed him a request to do it from the leadership of the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF), thousands of its supporters, and public figures. Given this, as well as the good act of the Penitentiary Service, which created the conditions for this meeting, Bagirzade said that he was stopping the hunger strike," said Rovshan Akhmedli.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 16, 2019 at 04:56 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.