Sahib Mammadzade -a victim of a police provocation, according to the relatives of the PFPA activist

The sister, lawyer and party colleague of the chairman of the Dashkesan organization of the PNFA, Sahib Mammadzade, told Turan about the circumstances of his detention and conviction for 4 months.

"Sahib Mammadzadeh was transporting cattle in his truck. At a road intersection in the Geygel region, police patrol stopped him and demanded to get out of the car. Sahib obeyed, having previously handed over a mobile phone to his sister, asking her to film what was happening.  On the ground, the Sahib was searched and severely beaten.  Then he and the car were searched. While beating, Sahib was put into a police car and taken to the city department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ganja, where they continued to beat him," said Bakhtiyar Yusifov, an associate of Mammadzade.

The police, using force, took away the cell phone from the detainee's sister, Taira Mammadzade.  In an interview with Turan, she added:

"My brother was beaten, knocked to the ground, in front of my eyes. He refused to get into the police car, he was dragged there by several policemen. Then they demanded that I give them the phone with the recording of the event. I refused, they attacked me, beat me, tore out my phone and erased my records.  I still have bruises on my arm. I received a medical certificate of the injuries inflicted on me," said Taira Mammadzade.

In a certificate from the Ganja United City Hospital dated 18.03.24, the doctor stated a bruise of the left elbow on the arm of Taira Mammadzade Murvat gizi, born in 1991, the doctor writes: "according to her, she was abused at the Dashkesan post by unknown people.  An X-ray was performed and sent for CT analysis. Signed by the doctor Askerov."

Taira Mammadzade and Bakhtiyar Yusifov are confident in Sahib Mammadzade's innocence. They believe that the police provocation was deliberately carried out on the eve of the Novruz holiday, so that due to the seven-day non-working days (March 20-27) in Azerbaijan, the relatives and lawyer of the detainee could not protect Mammadzade.

Lawyer Zabil Gahramanov, defending the head of the Dashkesan district branch of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan Sahib Mammadzade, added in an interview with Turan: "After forcibly dropping Mammadzade off from his truck, the police examined the car and found no drugs in it, but pulled the drug out of Mammadzade's clothes. The accused claims that the police planted the drug on him," the lawyer said.

Gahramanov has not yet met with Sahib Mammadzade, who is being held in the Ganja pre-trial detention center due to holiday vacations. Zabil Gahramanov will determine the line of defense after a meeting with the accused. But he reported that Mammadzade pleads not guilty and considers himself a victim of police provocation.

"Mammadzade was sentenced to a four-month detention in a pre-trial detention center for the period of investigative actions.  He is charged under  the Article 234.3.4 (possession of  a large-scale narcotic substances.)  After the end of the holidays, on March 27, I will appeal to the Ganja Court of Appeal with a request to change the measure of restraint to home detention for S.Mammadzade," lawyer Gahramanov said.

Due to the Novruz holiday and non-working days, it is not possible to get a comment from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.