Bashir Suleymanly left MDCOC (updated)

Baku / 01.05.17 / Turan: About 18.00 Bashir Suleymanly left the Main Department for Combating Organized Crime (MDCOC) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In an interview with Turan, he said that he was told that the interrogation was connected with information that he was allegedly preparing to recognize the convicted head of the International Bank of Azerbaijan Jahangir Hajiyev as a political prisoner. Suleymanli, in turn, said that the information is not true.

According to Suleymanly, in general, his claims to human rights were not any complaints, and the treatment was correct. Eventually, Suleymanli was released, saying that there were no more questions to him. Earlier in the Yevlakh region, the father of the activist was summoned to the police. Suleymanli believes that this could also be related to the aforementioned police assumption.

Suleymanli explained that lists of political prisoners are compiled by a civil society working group collectively and on the basis of clear and specific criteria. Nevertheless, it is not clear why this topic provoked the interest of the Ministry of Internal Affairs? -06B--

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2017 May 01 (Monday) 17:41:35

Bashir Suleymanly has been interrogated for several hours in the Ministry of Internal Affairs

Baku / 01.05.17 / Turan: Human rights defender Bashir Suleymanli disappeared, lawyer Elchin Sadigov told Turan. "He has not heard for several hours, the mobile phone is off. A few days ago he was summoned to the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"Last Friday we were on a car with Bashir from the Sabail court when the road police stopped us," human rights activist Samir Qazymli told Turan. "The policeman told Bashir that he himself does not know the reason for stopping the car, he called someone, and said that there are two people in the car. Then he let us go. At this time, the car was followed by a white car. Today Bashir again noticed the shadow of the same  car.

Last time Bashir spoke with his wife on the phone at 14:05 and said that he would not come, and asked to warn his friends. After that, his phone went off. However, despite this, he is active in whatsapp, I called, I was given a call-off. 40 minutes ago he was active in facebook. Most likely, his social network is viewed by other people," said Kyazimli.

"The Platform of the Civil Society expresses concern about the disappearance of one of the founding members of the platform, human rights activist Bashir Suleymanli," human rights activist Akif Gurbanov said. "We demand from the authorities to provide information about his whereabouts and status.

The statement of lawyer Elchin Sadigov, the words Suleymanly said over the phone to his wife, give grounds to believe that he was detained by the police. Therefore, we demand from the Interior Ministry information about its whereabouts," said Gurbanov. Attempts to get  comments in the Interior Ministry about the disappearance of Bashir Suleymanly failed. -0-