BP fired public activist Abid Gafarov

Baku/08.06.23/Turan: Public activist Abid Gafarov learned after his release from prison that he was fired from his job at the BP oil company. In an interview with a Turan correspondent, he noted that in connection with the sentence imposed on him on December 6, 2022, in accordance with part C of paragraph 1 of Article 71 of the Labor Code, the contract with him was terminated. After his release from prison, the company refused to reinstate him to work.

He regarded it as a violation of his rights to life, nutrition, and health. "The minimum consumer basket set by the government per person is 200 manats. There are 6 people in our family, so we need 1200 manats to survive. However, now after I was deprived of my job, we were left without means of subsistence," Gafarov said.

He believes that the Azerbaijani authorities are behind his dismissal and refusal to reinstate him to work. In order to find work and feed his family, Gafarov is thinking about leaving Azerbaijan.

"Now I'm consulting with my family. Probably, we will see a way out of the situation in leaving the country," Gafarov said. He is a specialist in the automation of production and technological processes in the oil sector. Gafarov has worked in the oil and gas and energy sector of Azerbaijan for about 30 years.

Abid Gafarov was arrested on July 13 last year. He was sued by a group of veterans of the Karabakh war. They claimed that Gafarov insulted and slandered them.

By a court decision, Gafarov was sentenced to a year in prison under   the Articles 147 (slander) and 148 (insult) of the Criminal Code. He received 6 months in prison on each count.

The real reason for the persecution of Abid Gafarov was his video reports exposing crimes against a large group of military men convicted of allegedly spying for Armenia in the scandalous "Terrorist case" in 2017. He published his research on the YouTube channel KİM.TV .

On June 1, the Court of Appeal released him early, softening his sentence. ---06B---