Mehman Galandarov was killed - experts

Baku / 16.02.18 / Turan: Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan closed the criminal case initiated in May of last year under the Article 125 of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan Republic (bringing to suicide) in connection with the death in Baku pre-trial-1 of the opposition blogger Mehman Galandarov. On April 28, he was found hanged in a cell of a pre-trial detention center.

In the beginning, the Penitentiary Service tried to hide this fact, but as a result of public pressure, Galandarov's death was officially recognized. Human rights activists immediately called the blogger's strange death. In conditions of modern insulators it is practically impossible to hang oneself. First, the prisoner is not alone in the cell and under supervision.

According to the investigation, at the time of suicide Galandarov was alone, and his cellmate was in the bath. However, this version does not stand up to criticism, so the visit to the shower is strictly limited, and during this time it was not realistic to hang himself.

There is reason to believe that Galandarov was hanged, and indirect confirmation of this was that his body was not given to relatives, but buried secretly. Therefore, the closure of the criminal case in connection with the absence of a "crime event" is puzzling.

Human rights activist Oktay Gulaliyev told Turan that what happened to Mehman Galandarov is related to his social and political activities. He was engaged in organizing actions in Georgia in defense of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, he was a blogger. In addition, he held a single action in defense of Giyas Ibrahimov and Bayram Mammadov before the monument to Heydar Aliyev.

"Immediately after Mehman's death, we created a public committee and appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Penitentiary Service with a proposal to exhume.

According to our information, there were signs of torture on Galandarov's body. We also suggested that we jointly examine the scene of the incident - the camera, for we are convinced that it is impossible to hang ourselves in investigative isolators. However, none of our proposals were accepted.

Mehman was a fighter by nature, and he had no reason to commit suicide. The prosecutor's office opened a criminal case under Article 125 of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan and punished two officers of the detention center, and this was stopped, which is illegal.

The perpetrators of his unlawful arrest, torture and death must be punished," Gyulaliyev added.

Editor-in-chief of the newspaper Khural, Avaz Zeynalli, believes the termination of the criminal investigation into the death of Galandarov, the authorities announced to the public that the perpetrators would go unpunished: "We killed him and hushed up the case, such is the message to the society," he said.

In the Baku detention facility it is impossible to hung on a sheet on the window grill. I myself spent 19 months in this isolator, and I can confidently say that such a suicide is impossible there," Zeynalli said. -0-