Saleh Rustamov Speaks about Torture before Court

Baku / 01.24.19 / Turan: In the Baku Court of Grave Crimes, the trial continues in the so-called case of "On 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 PFPA Narimanov district department Babek Hasanov, a PFPA 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 23, the trial chaired by Eldar Ismayilov heard the testimony of the accused Saleh Rustamov.

He said that in 1992-1993 he was the head of the Gadabay region of Azerbaijan and a member of the Popular Front.

Since 1998, Rustamov lived in Russia, received Russian citizenship and was engaged in small business. He came to Azerbaijan to visit his relatives. During the next visit, he was detained.

"On May 8, with my wife and brother, we were traveling in a car, at the traffic police post between Shamkir and Ganja stopped us. 10-15 people attacked me and took me to the Shamkir police. There, I was offered to sign a protocol about their allegedly finding 30 grams of heroin on me. When I refused, one of the officials present said: "Now we"ll bring your wife and brother here and we will arrest them too, and if we need all your relatives, we will arrest them".

After that, I had to sign thea protocol that I had found "drugs" on the street," S. Rustamov said. On the same day, he was brought to Baku to the General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (GDCOC) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"They told me that tomorrow I would stand trial and that there I shouldn"t talk too much." "You are in deep trouble yourself, so don"t bring trouble to your relatives," said one of the investigators and showed me a photo of my sister and named the address of her apartment.

Therefore, in court, when a measure of restraint was chosen, I did not say anything. After the trial, I was told, "Now, tell us how you financed the party?" I answered them that I provided financial assistance only to the families of political prisoners - members of the PFPA.

According to him, he sent personal funds to Azerbaijan, and later donations from other Azerbaijanis. In general, Rustamov monthly sent $ 400-500 to the families of political prisoners, and his biggest transfer was $ 1,200.

However, under torture, he was forced to testify that he sent the PFPA leader A. Kerimli $ 25-30 thousand every month.

"From time to time, four or five people came to me, with an inhuman face, and they beat me, spat at me, and insulted me with the worst words. My relatives are sitting here, and I do not want to talk in detail about the forms of torture, so as not to shock them. But when they brought my nephew Vidadi Rustamli and began to torture him, I could not resist and said that I would sign everything just to not torment the guy ...

They demanded that I give the names of the oligarchs whom I allegedly met in Moscow. They called the names of people whom I had never seen - Abbas Abbasov (the former First Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan), Iskender Khalilov (he has big business in Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation) and two other persons ...," Rustamov said.

He noted that he had been selling shoes in Moscow, earned a living, had his eldest son treated, and had no political ambitions in Azerbaijan and did not want to return to the country for permanent residence.

After that, the judge announced that the next meeting would be held on January 25. - 06D--