Gulaliyev: More than 150 Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan

The head of the Public Alliance Azerbaijan without Political Prisoners Oktay Gulaliyev met with the Adviser to the US Embassy for Political Affairs William Solleey.

According to Gulaliyev, during the meeting they focused on the situation of human rights in Azerbaijan. According to him, they discussed the problem of political prisoners and other issues. "Human rights are massively violated in the country. Just before the referendum on September 26 more than 200 people were detained by police and subjected to administrative arrests," the human rights activist told Turan.

According to him, the country has more than 150 political prisoners and most of them are believers. Special attention was focused on those arrested in the Nardaran events. Gulaliyev expressed the view that those arrested for the Nardaran events, including the leader of the movement Muslim Unity Taleh Bagirzadeh, PFPA deputy chairman Fuad Gahramanli and others were arrested on trumped up charges.

According to the human rights activist, believers did not make armed resistance to the police, but the law enforcement officers used violence against peaceful innocent citizens and tortured them.

Gulaliyev also reported a large number of convicted persons who were victims of the arbitrariness of the former Ministry of National Security.

He also informed that the criminal case under article 220.2 (incitement to disorder) started against him has not yet been terminated, and because of this there is a ban on his leaving the country. -06D--