Suspects of blowing up five-storey house in Baku complain of torture

On December 17, Elchin Bekhbudov, chair of the Azerbaijani Committee against Torture, has addressed the Interior Minister Ramil Usubov on the issue of torture used at the 24th police station of the Nizami District Police Department.

Mr Bekhbudov said in his talk with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the persons detained as suspects in the case on the explosion on December 13 of a five-storey house in Nakhichevanskaya Street in Nizami District of Baku were tortured.

According to Elchin Bekhbudov, after he received information about facts of torture he agreed to hold on December 16 at 5:00 p.m. together with Ismail Asadov, head of the Nizami District Police Department, a monitoring in the 24th station. However, in the agreed time Mr Asadov could not be found in his workplace and did not answer phone calls.

We remind you that in the context of the investigation of the reasons of the explosion in House No. 34 Nakhichevanskaya Street, presumably from leakage of household gas, police detained the workers Elman Niftaliev, Samir Kerimov and Parviz Zulfugarov, who made repairs in one of the apartments of that house. Kerimov and Zulfugarov were released on the following day, and Mr Niftaliev is still behind bars.

Today, the "Azadlyg" (Freedom) newspaper has published an interview with Kerimov who says that he was tortured in the 24th police station with the aim to get his confession that during the repairs they had left the gas cooker valve open. According to Kerimov, persons in civilian clothes put him on the floor and started beating his heels with truncheon, having gagged his mouth. He has noted that it all took place in the eyes at inspectors from the prosecutor's office. After that Kerimov was forced to give the evidences that the policemen wanted to knock out.

In reality, according to Kerimov, the apartment where they made repairs had no gas at all, as one month ago they dismantled the gas pipes and put a plug at the gas line entrance to the apartment.

Anar, brother of another detainee - Parviz Zulfugarov, has also confirmed that his brother had been beaten at the police station.

We remind you that as a result of the explosion on December 13 in the five-storey house at No. 34 Nakhichevanskaya Street, Nizami District, two persons were lost and six more wounded.