- Want to say
- 13 December 2016, 21:30
- 96
Azerbaijan: Free student activists Bayram and Giyas
Student protestors Bayram and Giyas face 12 years in prison for a graffiti protest
They protested in the only way they knew how. Fed up with an increasingly authoritarian state, students Bayram Mammadov and Giyas Ibrahimov sprayed “Happy slave day” on the statue of Azerbaijan’s former president, whose son currently rules the country.
The young men posted a photo of their action on Facebook on 9 May 2016. They were arrested within a few hours and charged with drug possession.
Bayram and Giyas say that the police planted heroin on them. The fact that they were arrested shortly after painting the statue, and that they were only interrogated about the graffiti, exposes the charges for what they are: a complete fabrication.
Both young men were severely beaten and forced to make false confessions. “They took my pants off and threatened to rape me with a baton,” Bayram later wrote from prison. “I had to "confess" and sign a statement drafted by them.”
Bayram and Giyas are locked up awaiting trial. They face up to 12 years in prison – all for a graffiti protest.
Sign our petition to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan:
I call on you to ensure that Bayram Mammadov and Giyas Ibrahimov are immediately and unconditionally released, and that the drug charges against them are dropped.
Bayram and Giyas were tortured into confessing to possession of heroin, which was planted on them – a ruse used by police whose real motives were to punish the students for spraying graffiti on the statue of the former president of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev.
Bayram and Giyas should not be facing up to 12 years in prison for exercising their right to freedom of expression. Please release them now.
Want to say
-
In Ukraine, a brutal, bloody war caused by Russian aggression continues, claiming lives, destroying homes, demolishing infrastructure, and inflicting incalculable harm on the environment and surrounding natural ecosystems. Ukraine, more than anyone else in this world, strives for peace, as we bear the daily brutality of this Russian-Ukrainian war. We are at the forefront of the struggle for the right to life, freedom, and justice. Ukraine seeks a just peace that will lay a solid foundation for a stable future for Europe and the World, and the only way of achieving this is to implement President Volodymyr Zelensky's Peace Formula (the Ukrainian Peace Formula).
-
On the eve of a large-scale flood approaching Baku, a disturbing incident occurred in the village of Buzovna, where a Lada Priora car fell into the ground, literally collapsing the road beneath it. The driver miraculously remained unharmed but vowed to seek justice, promising to file an official complaint with the prosecutor’s office against Azersu OJSC, the state-owned water supply and sewerage company, often associated with deeply rooted corruption.
-
In a bit of historic irony, powerful oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili has managed to inspire rare unity across Georgia’s cacophonous political scene twice in his life. His money and influence forged the broad-based consolidation of opposition forces that brought him to power in 2012, and now, 12 years and three electoral cycles later, a similar pattern of opposition convergence could send him packing.
-
Russian authorities and pro-Kremlin influencers have been spreading false information about alleged Reporters Without Borders (RSF) research into Nazi tendencies within the Ukrainian military, which was featured in a viral video falsely attributed to the BBC. RSF exposes the inner workings of a disinformation campaign designed to justify President Vladimir Putin's war narrative.
Leave a review