FaktYoxla Praises Statement by Minister of Interior

Baku /16.10.19 / Turan: Interior Minister Vilayat Eyvazov in an interview with CoE Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Miyatovich on July 10 of this year spoke about the successes of his department in recent years. Torture and inhuman treatment of detainees, remand prisoners and convicts are not allowed in law enforcement agencies, he said.

"In the five years and the first half of 2019, there have been no cases of inhuman treatment at the Foreign Ministry," the Interior Ministry press service quotes Eyvazov.

The new FaktYoxla (FactCheck) website (https://www.faktyoxla.info) checks the veracity of statements by Azerbaijani politicians, public and government figures, comparing their words with facts from open sources.

After that, the statement is evaluated on a scale of eight gradations: "truth", "mostly true", "half-truth", "mostly error", "error", "false", "manipulation of facts" and "not defined".

Eivazov"s statement at the meeting with Miyatovich was assessed by website experts as "false".

FaktYoxla comes to this conclusion by analyzing reports of international organizations on cases of torture and other forms of inhuman treatment in Azerbaijan over the past five years.

In 2014, Human Rights Watch reported beatings by police of young activists, as well as beating confessions of not committed crimes from detainees. So, the blogger Abdul Abilov was beaten until he took the blame for the crime. The activist of the NIDA organization, Kamala Bananyarli, who was detained in May this year, reported that she was hit on the head several times by the police.

The report for 2015 reports that on August 20, Bahruz Hajiyev, a detainee in Mingachevir, died in custody, and family members saw signs of torture on the body of a prisoner Elsad balayev who died in December. In the same year, the leader of the REAL party, Ilgar Mammadov, was beaten in prison.

In August 2016, beatings and the threat of sexual violence against prisoner Eldaniz Gahraman were recorded. In May, the arrested Giyas Ibrahimov and Bayram Mammadov were beaten.

In 2017, in a trial of 17 participants in mass protests in Nardaran, the defendants claimed beatings and torture during the investigation.

In a report of the same organization for 2018, it was said that Elgiz Sadigli, who was abducted in February, was detained in police for four days without communication with the outside world. At this time, he was beaten, tortured with electric shock.

FaktYoxla also took into account the reports of the Committee against Torture of the CE following six visits to Azerbaijan. The report says of systematic torture and other forms of violence against Azerbaijani prisoners, detainees, arrested and remand prisoners.

The data of 2018 from the report of the US Department of State on human rights violations in Azerbaijan is also given. In particular, the US Department of State recorded the beating of 17-year-old activist Fatima Movlamly in 2018.

In the first six months of 2019, the defendants in the Ganja criminal case were beaten - brothers Riya and Gyulmirza Nuruzadeh and Jabir Azizov, forced to testify against Elman Guliyev.

Jabir Azizov later said in court that he cut his hands and throat with a blade to stop the inhuman torture: "I was tortured so much that I"m embarrassed to say this," he said in court.

There are other facts in the FaktYoxla report that give researchers a reason to evaluate Minister Eyvazov"s speech as "false". -0-