23:45, 27 June 2022

Azerbaijani human rights defender Elchin Mamed goes on hunger strike

Elchin Mamed. Photo https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/ru/case/travel-ban-and-temporary-detention-elchin-mammad

Azerbaijani human rights defender and journalist Elchin Mamed went on a hunger strike ahead of the consideration of his applications for conditional early relief (CER). He does not believe in the fairness of the court and wrote appeals to renounce Azerbaijani citizenship and grant him political asylum in the EU countries.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on May 3, Elchin Mamed went on a hunger strike with the demand to release him. His mother Rakhilya Mamedova asked the President of Azerbaijan to pardon her son. On May 10, Elchin Mamed stopped his hunger strike in the penal colony.

On October 8, 2021, a court in Baku refused Elchin Mamed, who requested to replace his remaining term of imprisonment with a suspended sentence or to transfer him to a penal colony in connection with serving a third of the sentence.

Elchin Mamed suggests that he has exhausted the possibilities to achieve justice in Azerbaijan and no longer believes in the possibility of pronouncement of a legal decision by local courts, reports Elchin Gasanzade, the deputy chair of the NGO “Legal Education of Sumgait Youth”.

Elchin Mamed’s mother says that her son has serious health problems and a new hunger strike can threaten his life.

Earlier, the human rights organization “Amnesty International” (AI) has stated that Elchin Mamed was arrested “on trumped-up charges.”

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 27, 2022 at 02:30 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Faik Medjid

Source: CK correspondent