PFPA Activists Tell about Torture before Court

Baku / 01/23/19 / Turan: In the Baku Court of Grave Crimes, a meeting continues in the so-called case of "illegal financing" of the PFPA.

Recall that three activists appeared before the court: a member of the party"s Board Agyl Maharramli, the head of the Narimanov district department Babek Hasanov, a youth committee activist Ruslan Nasirli, as well as a businessman Saleh Rustamov and his nephew Vidadi Rustamli.

On May 26, 2018, the country's Prosecutor General"s Office announced their arrest on charges of "illegal financing" of the PFPA. The arrested were accused of illegal business, money laundering, criminally obtained funds, etc.

PFPA denied the unlawful funding. All those arrested were recognized by human rights activists as political prisoners.

On January 22, the trial, chaired by Eldar Ismayilov, heard the testimony of the accused Agyl Maharramli and Ruslan Nasirli.

Maharramli spoke about the torture to which he was subjected in the General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (GDCOC) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to him, they handcuffed him and put him on his knees and beat him.

"After this did not give any result, they took me to another room and let the current in, connecting the middle finger and the thumb with a wire. At first I put up with it, but they increased the voltage. When, already I could not tolerate, I "confessed" that I had received money from Saleh Rustamli, but did not transfer it to Ali Kerimli.

The police so increased the voltage that the capillaries on the hand burst. After that, I was forced to write a statement about the refusal of a lawyer and disclose the phone password. I told the camera everything as they requested. They didn"t like the first one, so they repeated it," Maharramli said.

He spoke about the lawyer Safar Huseynov, who was hired by him at the expense of the state. "This is not a lawyer. I was tortured in his presence. Looking at me, he said: you are young, everything will pass. At that moment, there was also investigator of the General Prosecutor"s Office, Sanan Pashayev, Maharramli said.

The torture was continued and his testimony was beaten out that he had received money in an envelope and handed it to Ali Kerimli. "Vidadi Rustamli and I, after torture, were brought to a confrontation, where we, as robots, said what they demanded," said Maharramli.

Another accused, Ruslan Nasirli, said he was detained in Ganja on May 25.

"6-7 people in civilian clothes attacked me, put me in a car and brought me to Baku GDCOC. All the way I was in handcuffs. When they brought me in, I decided that they were going to plant drugs with me. At that moment, investigator Sanan Pashayev was also there. Shouts were heard from the neighboring rooms, as if the people were tortured by the medieval Inquisition," Nasirli said. -03D06--