PPFA activist starts hunger strike in penal colony

Niyameddin Akhmedov, an activist of the Party of People's Front of Azerbaijan (PPFA), has started a hunger strike in penitentiary institution No. 7, where he is serving a prison sentence. This is stated in the PPFA report.

The reason for the hunger strike was Akhmedov's imprisonment in the punishment cell.

‘Niyameddin Akhmedov was imprisoned in the punishment cell because he publicised the suicide case of an inmate in colony number 7. As a sign of protest he went on hunger strike,’ the PPFA noted.

On 16 January, the facebook page of 'Azadliq' newspaper published a report about the death of a prisoner in Colony 7.  It was claimed that the prisoner Nagiyev Tural Elkhan oglu was brutally beaten in the colony number 7 and then imprisoned in a punishment cell. Protesting against this injustice, he hanged himself in the punishment cell.

Another prisoner named Orkhan was also reportedly threatened, saying that ‘after the fatal incident, the colony chief will be changed’.  He was also put in a punishment cell where he is being tortured, the 'Azadliq' newspaper report claimed.

   In turn, the Penitentiary Service denied the allegations of Akhmedov's placement in a punishment cell and his hunger strike. "The report about Niyameddin Akhmedov, who is serving a sentence in correctional facility No. 7, is not true. The said person has not been transferred to a punishment cell and is not currently on a hunger strike. He is being held along with other convicts in the residential part of the facility. Niyameddin Akhmedov's rights are being ensured, his legitimate interests are being protected," the department said in a statement.

* Niyameddin Akhmedov is the bodyguard of PPFA leader Ali Kerimli. He was arrested in April 2020 on charges of violating the quarantine regime. He was later charged under Article 214-1 (financing of terrorism) of the Criminal Code. Later he was charged under Article 281 (public calls against the state) and 233-1 (acquisition, possession of prohibited items).

The court imprisoned him for 13 years. The Court of Appeal upheld the judgement.

Note that Akhmedov denied the charges against him. Human rights activists recognised Akhmedov as a political prisoner.