The imprisoned director of Azerbaijani independent media outlet Abzas Media has ended his hunger strike after 17 days amidst growing concern for his health and wellbeing.
Hasanli ended his hunger strike on Tuesday. He originally began the strike in protest against the authorities’ refusal to transfer him to a different prison, despite a court ruling ordering such.
According to Abzas Media, Hasanli’s relatives believe he ended the hunger strike because he managed to secure a court appointment for the Abzas Media case at an appeals court on 12 August.
According to the Azerbaijani regulations, convicted prisoners must be placed in pre-trial detention centres as long as they have an ongoing appeal at a court.
Hasanli had previously demanded that he be transferred to the Baku Pre-trial Detention Centre from Umbaki Prison. He said that he was not allowed to openly meet his young daughter and wife in prison, and the distance made it difficult for his family and lawyers to see him.
After ending the hunger strike, Hasanli expressed hope that the problem would be resolved legally.
Hasanli lost 15 kilogrammes during the course of his hunger strike, his wife, Rubaba Guliyeva, stated on Monday. Currently, he weighs 63 kilogrammes, Guliyeva said.
‘He has become very weak and feeble. During the visit, he could barely stand. Ulvi is being subjected to unbearable torture. A person dying of hunger is kept in a cell in 40-degree heat. The cell has no windows or ventilation’, wrote Guliyeva.
Hasanli was placed in solitary confinement the day he began his hunger strike, with his wife warning that the conditions in which he was being kept negatively affected his health. Guliyeva has said that Hasanli suffered from difficulty breathing and shortness of breath, as a result of which, his blood circulation had weakened, and ‘his legs are freezing because the blood does not flow well to the heart’.
‘Cold sweat appeared, the body is fighting for life. He has also developed cysts in his kidneys, and his blood pressure is low. There is no medical supervision’, she continued in a Facebook post.
She said the prison guard was only given valerian, a mild herbal sedative, ‘so that if Ulvi’s condition worsens, he can give him two tablets. They kill people for the slightest reason’ by not providing them with real care, Guliyeva concluded.
On Tuesday, Hasanli’s sister, Sada Hasanova, also wrote on social media calling Hasanli’s situation ‘indescribable’.
‘I’ve been in a state of confusion for days: either crying, or losing my appetite, or being fed up with life, I can’t even express it. I can’t help myself. Aren’t these people human? How can the people who run this be so inhumane? Do you expect someone to die right in front of you? My brother is in such a difficult situation, and I can’t do anything, nothing [...] Can you imagine?’, she wrote.
Aytan Farhadova
