22:05, 30 September 2019

Rights defenders: "Ganja case" defendant dies because of torture in Azerbaijan

The police at a protest action in Azerbaijan. Photo by Aziz Karimov for the "Caucasian Knot"

On September 29, Eshgin Guliev, a participant of the protests in Ganja, died in a prison hospital. Eshgin Guliev was seriously ill, and his health state was deteriorated by torture and an unfair sentence, human rights defenders stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 19, the court sentenced a group of seven defendants in a case on the Ganja riots. Eshgin Guliev was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment.

On July 3, 2018, an assassination attempt was made on Elmar Veliev, the head of the Ganja administration. The law enforcement bodies called the incident a terror act and detained a suspect, Yunis Safarov, a native of Ganja. On July 10, 2018, about 200 people took part in a protest action in Ganja and demanded to investigate the actions of Elmar Veliev himself. Two police officers were killed while dispersing the rally.

On September 29, Eshgin Guliev died from "cardiopulmonary insufficiency amid deep coma, Grade 4 of AIDS, viral hepatitis C, anaemia, and brain tumour," reported the press service of the penitentiary service.

"This is already the second incident when a person sentenced in the Ganja case died. Aidyn Gurbanov died in July," noted Ogtai Gyulyalyev, head of the Committee against Repression and Torture.

The Eshgin Guliev's death drew public attention to the vices of the judicial system in Azerbaijan, says Samira Agaeva, the deputy chair of the civil movement "D-18".

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 30, 2019 at 03:15 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Faik Medjid

Source: CK correspondent