Elvin Mustafayev, an imprisoned member of the Desk Confederation of Trade Unions (DCTU), was reportedly beaten by 15 people in prison.
Trade union activist Sara Rahimova on Wednesday stated on social media that unknown individuals tried to beat Mustafayev to death in prison, but he survived.
‘Elvin survived the brutal beating purely by chance, with serious injuries’, the statement read.
Rahimova said that Mustafayev was kept from seeing his family for over a month in order to hide his injuries.
‘His family, his friends, and even his lawyer had no access to him. His court hearings were postponed’, stated Rahimova.
Mustafayev is one of the four members of the DCTU who was sentenced to three years of prison on drug charges. He has denied these charges.
Mustafayev faced torture after he announced that will join to hunger strike of Tofig Yagublu, a prominent politician who was sentenced nine years in prison.
Aytan Farhadova
He now faces transfer to a tougher, stricter prison reserved for criminals convicted of grave crimes after the head of his prison accused him of ‘acting like an opposition figure’.
Mustafayev is serving time at prison colony N6 and is being held in solitary confinement until 29 June.
On 5 June, the head of his prison colony filed a petition calling for his transfer to Gobustan prison at the Nizami District Court. Gobustan is a strict regime prison usually reserved for prisoners serving life sentences or convicted of grave crimes.
Mustafayev’s lawyer Zibeyda Sadigova told OC Media that she will meet with Mustafayev next week because he demanded an emergency meeting with her in prison.
‘His court hearing about the transfer will be held on 3 July’, stated his lawyer.
‘I was punished for an interview about the head of police station No 32’
On Wednesday, independent media outlet Meydan TV reported that Shahbaddin Orujov, the father of Mohiaddin Orujov, a fourth member of DCTU who was sentenced for three years in prison on drug trafficking charges, had his car seized by the police.
Shahbaddin Orujov told OC Media that on 17 June he was driving his car in Baku on his way to meet his son in prison, but was stopped by the traffic police and forced to wait for two hours.
‘First, he said I was fined for violating traffic rules, and then he asked me to follow him to the Main Traffic Police Department of Baku. And there the police followed me to the office of the head of the department. And there I learned about the fines in the amount of ₼40,300 ($24,000), which were collected over seven years’.
Orujov stated that his car was a gift by the President Ilham Aliyev to former soldiers who fought in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. Orujov has a disability and uses a walking stick and is unable to use public transport.
‘The car is important to me for meeting my son Mohiaddin in prison. Now I couldn’t visit him. How is it possible that I was fined for seven years of violating traffic rules, but never got any document about the violations’, Orujov said.
‘I don’t think that the state can forget about the fines, I think I was only punished for my interview with Teymur Eminbayli. In his program I complained about Samir Chobanov [the head of the police department] who gave my son drug charges. He never used drugs’, Orujov told OC Media.
OC Media has seen the documents showing the fines Orujov had allegedly accrued over seven years.
Four members of the DCTU have been sentenced to prison on different charges.
The chair of the organisation, Afiyaddin Mammadov, was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of hooliganism and intentionally causing serious bodily harm to someone.
Three other members, Elvin Mustafayev, Aykhan Israfilov, and Mohiaddin Orujov have also been arrested on drug charges.
Aytan Farhadova
