Azerbaijan has added charges of document forgery against Novruz Taghiyev, a bodyguard of the opposition Popular Front Party (PFP) leader Ali Karimli. Taghiyev has been in detention since late May on separate charges of fraud.
The independent media outlet Meydan TV reported the news on Sunday.
Taghiyev’s lawyer, Nemat Karimli (no relation to Ali Karimli), said that the new charges were connected to the conclusion of the criminal case into Taghiyev’s previous charges, though he did not specify how. He also stated that Taghiyev had been transferred from a pre-trial detention centre to the Yasamal District Police Department the week prior, where he received his new charges.
‘Investigators usually do this, in practice there are such cases, they “stage” the accused from the place of detention to the police station. They brought him to the station so that a new charge could be announced. Tomorrow the case will be sent to court’, Karimli said.
He warned that Taghiyev had not been allowed to meet with his family while at the police department.
‘When I was there, he said that I have been hungry for three days. This is an inhumane step. Food is not allowed to be brought in from outside. Before, they said that food would be served from 15:00 to 18:00. But today they went and it was still not served’, Karimli said.
Taghiyev is believed to have been in detention since at least 20 May. At the time, RFE/RL reported that communication with Taghiyev and another member of the PFP, Rashad Aliyev, had been cut off.
According to Meydan TV, Taghiyev was detained by four plainclothes police officers while picking up his child from school on 20 May, and was driven around Baku in a car for nine hours.
Taghiyev’s new charges come amidst an intensifying crackdown on the opposition party and its chair, Ali Karimli, who was detained on 1 December.
Meydan TV has reported that more than 20 members of the party are currently in police custody.
Aytan Farhadova
