Stop Pressure on Political Emigrant Relatives!

The Center for Protection of Political Prisoners (CPPP) on Tuesday held a public discussion in relation to the pressure on the relatives of political emigrant Ordukhan Temirkhan and increased repression against political activists. The monitoring report over the "Nardaran case" was also presented
As the co-coordinator of CPPP Ogtay Gyulalyev said, just for the Nardaran events the criminal liability involved 87 people. Another seven people were declared wanted.

Thirty people in May and June 2016 were convicted by the Sabunchu district court, with relatively mild punishment on charges of drug possession.

Gyulalyev said that, in fact, on November 26, 2015 in Nardaran there was an armed provocation against the leader of the movement Muslim Unity Taleh Bagirzadeh and his supporters. He noted that the believers did not have weapons.

At the same time the human rights activist pointed out that the police did not provide any video of the operation either to the public, or the court.

Despite the fact that during the trial Bagirzadeh and 17 others accused spoke about torture, and the lawyers debunked the mendacity of the accusations, the court sentenced the  accused to long terms of imprisonment from 10 to 20 years in prison.

A political refugee and blogger Ordukhan Temirkhan joined the participants of the event through Skype and told about the recent pressure on his family members and relatives.

According to him, February 18, the police took away the families of his brothers and sisters. In Surakhani Police they were demanded to make Temirkhan stop his blogger and political activities abroad.

On February 19 the women were released. However, the older brother of the blogger, Khanlar and his nephew Sabuhi were sentenced to 30 days of administrative arrest. And the young man had appointed his own wedding for March 12. The lawyer filed an appeal to release him.

"To punish us, they punish our sisters, and even children are taken to the police. Today, however, the President appointed his wife as the First Vice President. That is, members of their families elevate. It shows the deplorable state of the country. Every citizen must fight against such injustice. The ruling family must understand that it is impossible to suppress the people's will. Whether they stop reprisals against my family or not, it is still impossible to silence me and I will continue to fight," said Temirkhan.
The journalist and human rights activist Avaz Zeynalli said the power has gone beyond all the "red lines". "Unprecedented things have been happening in Azerbaijan in recent years. We have witnessed the simultaneous arrest of husband and wife, father and son. Now, the police take away the mother and sisters of an activist. This is violation of the "red lines," said Zeynalli.

The human rights defender Leyla Yunus has also joined the participants of the event and said that the story of the Temirkhan family shows the government is ready to take the family members of its critics as hostages.

"Today we see that the struggle in Europe is causing a big blow to the authorities. Ordukhan's brother and nephew could be sentenced to 6-7 years in prison. But public protests forced the authorities to limit it to 30 days. Due to the public protests on Facebook the authorities realized they are crossing the "red lines," said Yunus.

The participants were unanimous about the fact that the repression could be only stopped by consolidating the efforts of the public. They demanded the release of all political prisoners and the activists arrested in recent days. -36C—