Rights defenders treat sentence to athlete Mamedzade as revenge for supporting opposition

With his open support of the opposition, Said Mamedzade has irritated officials, Tezekhan Miralamli, a human rights defender, has commented on the sentence passed to the athlete.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in May 2020, Said Mamedzade was arrested on charges of hooliganism. On April 28, 2021, the Khatai District Court of Baku sentenced him to 3.5 years in prison.

Tezekhan Miralamli, a member of the NGO "Defence Line", has not ruled out that Mamedzade's arrest could mean a start of a new wave of repressions.

"The March pardoning has disappointed us. Despite the release of about 40 political prisoners, more than 100 people arrested and convicted on political cases are still in jails. It would seem that after the pardoning, the authorities would release others on conditional early relief (CER). Instead, new administrative and criminal arrests followed," Mr Miralamli told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Tezekhan Miralamli has suggested that Mamedzade's case could be a special one, falling out of the general trend.

"Athletes are viewed by the authorities as a caste devoted to them. The authorities use sports and athletes' achievements to promote their policies, and, in exchange for loyalty, to put it mildly, try not to abuse them. Besides, the verdict to Said was timed to the birthday of the PFPA leader, Ali Kerimli, whose bodyguard Mamedzade was on a voluntary basis. That is, it was a message to Kerimli's supporters that any support and rapprochement with the PFPA leader can entail poor consequences," Tezekhan Miralamli has concluded.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 29, 2021 at 07:55 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.