Polad Aslanov reported pressure from the head of  prion No. 15

Polad Aslanov, the head of the xeberman.com website serving his sentence at prison No. 15, reported threats from the prison authorities after he exposed violations of prisoners' rights in the prison. His wife, Gülmira Aslanova, shared this information with Turan.

"Polad called today and said that the head of the prison, Rashad Ahadov, threatened him for reporting the violations of prisoners' rights to the press. He threatened that if Polad does this again, he will be deprived of phone calls and meetings with family members, and will be placed in solitary confinement," his wife said.

She also reported that pressure is being applied to the prisoners to prevent them from communicating with Polad. "One prisoner was placed in solitary confinement for the fact that Polad explained to him the procedure for filing a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights."

Earlier, Polad Aslanov complained that he was being forced to make calls home from the deputy head of the prison’s office, and his conversations were being monitored. He also spoke about the poor conditions in prison No. 15, the violations of prisoners' rights, and the general state of the prison. A blogger, Rashad Ramazanov, who is also held in the same prison, reported similar issues. Attempts to get comments from the Penitentiary Service on the matter were unsuccessful.

* Polad Aslanov was arrested on June 12, 2019, on charges of espionage for Iran (Article 274 of the Criminal Code - treason). He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Aslanov denies all charges, claiming that he is being persecuted for exposing corruption among intelligence agency officials. Human rights organizations have recognized him as a political prisoner. Later, the Supreme Court reduced his sentence to 13 years. The European Court of Human Rights ruled his detention unlawful and awarded him financial compensation.