Consideration of Mehman Huseynov`s complaint of torture began

Today, the Sabail District Court of Baku began considering the complaint of the convicted blogger Mehman Huseynov on torturing  in the police. The  trial chaired by Ayten Aliyeva was closed. The blogger himself was brought to court. His interests were represented by lawyers Fuad Agayev and Elchin Sadygov.

On January 10 of this year Huseynov, after the trial on the case of his detention, said that he was tortured in the 22nd branch of the Nasimi police. There he was taken after a kidnapping in the center of Baku in the evening of January 9 by a group of people in civilian clothes.

In this regard, the defense appealed to the Baku City Prosecutor's Office to investigate the fact of torture. However, the prosecutor's office refused to file a lawsuit. Now the defense filed a complaint against this decision of the prosecutor's office in court. As the lawyers said, they petitioned to ensure the receipt of materials from the prosecutor's office, on the basis of which the investigator refused to initiate criminal proceedings.

The court granted the motion and postponed the hearing at 14:00 on the 28th of March.

Other petitions are on summoning additional witnesses, the appointment of the examination, the request for video recordings from the police monitoring cameras. Journalists managed to see Huseynov when he was taken out of court. He shouted that he felt well and conveyed greetings to his colleagues.

 The statement of Huseynov on torture became the basis of a lawsuit against him on charges of libel. The plaintiff was the head of the Nasimi police Musa Musaev. In a short trial, accompanied by gross procedural violations, including the refusal to give time to defense to prepare for the speech, Huseynov was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment.

Many international organizations condemned Huseynov's sentence and regarded his punishment for blogging and human rights activities.-03C06-