Azerbaijan: health condition of the journalist hospitalized after arrest remains grave

In Azerbaijan, the health condition of journalist Emin Guseinov, who was exposed on June 14 to physical and moral pressure at a police station, remains grave. He is still unable to eat and drink anything but water, experiences strong pains in his head and dizziness, and cannot move by himself.

Mr Guseinov has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by telephone that today in the morning he was visited by two persons, one of them presented himself as the on duty physician who had accepted Guseinov to hospital on Saturday (Guseinov was in a state of insensibility), the other one - as the head of the neurotraumatology ward. They declared that Guseinov had no traumas; the only problem was his arterial pressure. Under their statement, Guseinov's pressure has stabilized and "there was no reason for him to stay in hospital any more."

After a while, Guseinov was visited by the head of the resuscitation ward, who said that Guseinov had "a light brain concussion", but there was no serious threat to his health, and his further stay in the resuscitation ward was unreasonable, since he needed calm. The doctor offered to transfer Guseinov into "a calm room" and continue his treatment there.

Guseinov does not object to change the ward, but he is anxious with the behaviour of hospital doctors: "Some of them say that I have nothing at all, others, on the contrary, diagnosed a craniocerebral trauma. Anyway, I'm for three days in hospital but get no treatment, except for some analgesics."

An attempt to get any explanations from the hospital managers has failed. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs is still abstaining from any comments. Officials from the President's administration and deputies from the party in power "New Azerbaijan" escape any contacts.