23:52, 27 December 2019

Opposition links arrest of Azerbaijani rapper with his work

Parviz Guluzade, a rap singer. Screenshot of the video on the YouTube channel Paster https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrtLWtwYvWSPgcLmzPFTz6A

Parviz Guluzade, a rap singer, known under the pseudonym Paster, has been arrested in Azerbaijan for 30 days on charges of petty hooliganism and disobedience to the police. The persecution of the rapper has to do with his creativity and political views, oppositional activists have suggested.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has reported that Guluzade was detained on December 26 in Baku, when "under the influence of narcotic drugs he violated the public order and disobeyed the policemen's lawful demands."

However, according to the blogger, Khabib Muntezir, who lives in Germany, the rapper Paster was tortured for his clip "Gang". According to Muntezir, the performer was detained for the words "I'll capture the country like Paşabank".

Ilgar Mamedov, the leader of the Republican Alternative (ReAl) Party, in his Twitter expressed the opinion that "the talented rapper was arrested for hinting that the Pashaevs' bank (Pashaev is the maiden name of the wife of the president of Azerbaijan and the country's first vice president Mekhriban Alieva) has monopolized Azerbaijan."

The "Pashabank" is the largest bank in Azerbaijan. According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the bank belongs to family members of the President of Azerbaijan.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 27, 2019 at 01:27 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Faik Medjid

Source: CK correspondent