Salekh Rustamov refuses dry hunger strike

An advocate and relatives of Azerbaijani activist Salekh Rustamov managed to persuade him not to go on a dry hunger strike. However, the activist still refuses food, and doctors assess his condition as extremely severe, the advocate reports.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on February 27, in Azerbaijan, Salekh Rustamov, a citizen of Russia, an activist of the Popular Front Party (PFPA), was sentenced to seven years and three months of imprisonment. Later, the Supreme Court (SC) reduced the sentence by two months. On November 6, Salekh Rustamov went on a hunger strike.

Activist Salekh Rustamov, who is on hunger strike for the 21st day, has lost the ability to move independently, his advocate Bakhruz Bairamov says.

According to the defender, the relatives of Salekh Rustamov persuaded him to postpone a dry hunger strike, which he was going to start today, on November 26.

The advocate notes that doctors assess the Salekh Rustamov’s condition as extremely severe and say that they will have to apply force feeding. “But this will be a doom for Salekh Rustamov. He has told me that if the force is used against him, he will commit suicide. At present, the doctors inject limited amount of vitamins to him in order to avoid disturbances in the activity of his brain,” advocate Bakhruz Bairamov said.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 26, 2021 at 12:14 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.