Arrested Jabrail Residents Forced to Make Confessions

On Saturday, public hearings were held with the participation of intellectuals and human rights activists, dedicated to the situation around internally displaced persons and political prisoners arrested in Bilasuvar.

Recall that on December 22, 2017 due to the power outage in 11 townships in the Bilasuvar area, where IDPs from the Jabrail region live, their residents held a protest.

The demonstration was dispersed by the police strictly. Five protesters were arrested on criminal charges.

"The outage was the last straw that broke the patience of the population. In fact, we, internally displaced persons over the years have accumulated social problems, and it also contributed to the emergence of a spontaneous protest," said the internally displaced person from Jabrail Mohammed Mejidli.

According to him, in the towns there is no gas, or heating and people use electrical heating. When they turn off the light, life becomes unbearable.

 "The houses are built poorly. But people somehow live. Social problems, unemployment has reached such proportions that the population has reached a peaceful protest. Moreover, the protesters did not violate the law. The police made a provocation by using violence against civilians. According to the information available to us, under pressure the arrested are forced to testify against each other, as well as make a confession, although these people did not commit not only a crime, but even an administrative offense. On the contrary, they were the victims of crimes of power," said Mejidli.

The head of the Public Alliance "Azerbaijan without political prisoners" Oktay Gyulalyev said there is no fault at the IDPs arrested in Bilasuvar.

"People took to the streets to demand the government to solve their social problems and raise the voice of protest against bureaucratic tyranny,” Gyulalyev said.

According to him, the idea of ​​the arrest of the protesters was signed by First Deputy Prosecutor General Rustam Usubov, who explained this by saying that "people gathered at 20.30 at the executive building, made illegal demands and obstructed the work of state institutions."

"First of all, since 20.30 is not considered as working time. Secondly, where have you seen that the nomination of demands to the government to solve social problems would be considered an illegal act? If state institutions would work fine, the people would not have accumulated so many problems," continued Gyulalyev.

During the discussions, a refrain sounded the idea to join forces for the protection of all political prisoners.

The wife of the leader of the movement Muslim Unity Taleh Bagirzade Leila Ismailzade said she would support the struggle for the release of all innocent detainees.

 "The proposal (of the prosecutor) to condemn Taleh Bagirzade to life imprisonment, and our other brothers – to long prison terms, does not break us," said Ismailzade.

The chief editor of the Khural newspaper Avaz Zeynalli suggested combining committees established to protect individual prisoners.

The father of the arrested activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) Fuad Ahmadli Zafar Ahmedov offered families of political prisoners to come together and create a common framework to protect their rights.

In connection with the protest action in Bilasuvar on December 22, Jalal Guliyev, Zaur Feyruzlu,and Gulaga Almamedov were arrested. They were charged with resisting the authorities against the use of violence, committing riots, destruction of another's property. For the same charges on December 24, two more people were arrested - Ulvi Guliyev and Ilkin Iskenderov. All of them are IDPs from the Jabrail district. -06D—