“Political Hostage” Emin Sagiev Must Be Released - Human Rights Activists

Baku / 16.09.20 / Turan: The human rights organization Line of Defense demanded the release of the "political hostage" Emin Sagiyev.

He is one of more than 200 political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Sagiev was arrested in November 2017 and sentenced to 7 years in prison on trumped-up charges of drug trafficking on a large scale. This accusation has traditionally been used by the authorities as a "stick" against their critics.

Sagiyev was declared a political prisoner by local human rights organizations. He was punished for the actions of his close relative, political emigrant and blogger Turkel Azertürk, who, while living in Europe, sharply criticized the Azerbaijani authorities.

The Defense Line is deeply concerned that when the government is unable to “neutralize” its critics abroad, it uses their close relatives as political hostages.

At one time, such repressions were carried out against the relatives of the head of Turan TV, Ganimat Zahid. His nephew and cousin were also convicted on drug trafficking charges and imprisoned. Both were recognized as political prisoners.

The same situation was repeated with respect to Nazim Agabekov, the son-in-law of blogger Emin, who was sentenced to a long term in prison on the same charges.

Recall that on August 18, the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan rejected Emin Sagiyev's cassation appeal, after which he went on a hunger strike, which he held for 24 days in prison No. 6. Lawyer Bahruz Bayramov said that Sagiyev had stopped the hunger strike on September 11.

The human rights organization Line of Defense was created on July 21 this year by a group of lawyers, activists and journalists. Former investigator and political prisoner Rufat Safarov was elected executive director of the organization. —03D06-