Political Prisoner Starts Hunger Strike

Baku / 20.08.20 / Turan: Emin Sagiyev, detained in prison number 6, began a hunger strike on August 18, his relatives told Turan.

Sagiyev was arrested in November 2017, and in 2018 he was sentenced to 7 years on charges of drug trafficking on a large scale.

Sagiyev went on a hunger strike after the country's Supreme Court dismissed his appeal against the verdict.

However, local human rights activists are convinced that he was punished for the journalistic activities of the political emigrant Turkel Azerturk. The latter has been living in Europe for several years. He was an employee of the Internet resource Azerbaijan Saaty, where he sharply criticized the Azerbaijani authorities.

In February of this year, he said that the Dutch police warned him about the surveillance by unknown persons and urged him to be more careful. Azerturk is convinced that these were agents of the Azerbaijani authorities sent to deal with him. Before that, he had been warned more than once that if he did not stop criticizing, he himself and his relatives in Azerbaijan would suffer. -0-