Families of Nakhchivan entrepreneurs held hostage

Family members of two Nakhchivan businessmen, Nadir Mamedov and Mamed Gurbanov, are not being allowed to travel from Nakhchivan to Baku. Turan was told this by Zulfinaz Mamedova, mother of Nadir Mamedov.

According to her, they had tickets for the flight from Nakhchivan to Baku that was to depart on the night of December 14. However, in the Nakhchivan airport all family members, including children, were detained. For half an hour they were illegally held in custody. They were told that there was an order not to release all 17 family members from Nakhchivan.

This order was received by all the border crossing points, said Zulfinaz Mamedova. She noted that their situation is very grave. "In fact, our whole family is under arrest. In front of our house are the police, and we are afraid to let the children out to the street and to school," she said.

Through the agency Turan she appealed to governments, human rights organizations, MPs, the Ombudsman and requested that their rights be restored.

Recall that on December 8 Nakhchivan entrepreneurs Nadir Mamedov and Mamed Gurbanov were detained at the Sadarak customs point, when they returned from a shopping tour in Turkey. On December 11 the Sadarak court issued their arrest warrant. Both businessmen are charged under Article 315.2 (resistance to authority).

The conflict with customs was caused by the businessmens’ refusal to pay a bribe. After that they were detained.

When Nakhchivan journalists wanted to investigate the conflict between customs and the businessmen, they were attacked, had their camera seized, were detained for several hours and then thrown out of customs. -03B04-