MIA Does Not Comment on Pressure on Members of Political Emigrant Family

On February 18 police employees of the Surakhani district of Baku detained four sisters, their husbands and children of Ordukhan Temirkhan, a political emigrant living in the Netherlands.

They were required to force the blogger to abandon his political activities and criticism of the government of Azerbaijan.

  While in police custody, the relatives contacted on the phone with the blogger and gave him the police claim.

Angered Temirkhan shamed police, demanding the immediate release of his family members, saying he would not stop criticizing the authorities of Azerbaijan.

In response, one of the policemen threatened that the blogger himself would be also “caught and delivered.”

According to Ordukhan Temirkhan, the police that spoke to him was Namig Hasanov, Head of the Surakhani Police Department of Baku. On his orders, the police brought his four sisters, two nephews, a brother-in-law, a niece and a nephew.

A few hours later the women were released and the men continued to be held at the police.

Turan's attempts to get a comment in the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were to no avail.

The blogger himself described the incident as abduction of his relatives, calling the police actions "immoral."

Meanwhile, the police have caused a wave of public anger at political leaders, who regarded the incident as a complete mess of the authorities, demanding that the leadership of the Ministry of Interior should assess the actions of its subordinates. -02D-