Abzas Media Director Faces Threats in Baku Pre-Trial Detention Center

Ulvi Hasanli, director of the independent news platform "Abzas Media," has reportedly faced death threats while being held in Baku Pre-Trial Detention Center No. 1. The alarming details emerged through his wife, Rubaba Guliyeva, who raised concerns about Hasanli’s safety in the facility, suggesting that his treatment may be a result of his journalistic work exposing human rights abuses.

In a telephone conversation with his wife, Hasanli described a pattern of harassment that intensified after he reported incidents of torture within the detention center. He mentioned a particular detainee named Siyavush, an elderly man in his 60s held on drug-related charges, who had become increasingly aggressive towards him. According to Hasanli, Siyavush repeatedly sought to provoke violent confrontations, even going as far as brandishing a sharp object and issuing explicit death threats.

Guliyeva expressed her husband's suspicion that the detention center's leadership might be complicit in orchestrating these threats. Despite Siyavush's sentencing, he remains in pre-trial detention rather than being transferred to a prison facility. Hasanli believes this prolonged stay is deliberate, aimed at using Siyavush to incite violence against him.

For over ten days, Hasanli and his lawyer, Zibeyda Sadigova, have been filing complaints to the detention center's management, but their concerns have so far gone unaddressed. “I demand that the Ombudsman’s office and the Penitentiary Service launch an immediate investigation into this matter and take measures to ensure Ulvi's safety,” Guliyeva said in her plea for intervention.

The Baku Pre-Trial Detention Center No. 1 and the Penitentiary Service have yet to comment on the allegations, leaving Hasanli's situation in a state of uncertainty. The case is the latest in a string of troubling reports from within Azerbaijan’s detention system, raising further questions about the treatment of journalists and activists who challenge the status quo.