Giyas Ibrahimov, a 22-year-old activist, was sentenced on Tuesday to ten years in prison after spray-painting anti-regime messages on a statue.
On May 9, Ibrahimov and Bayram Mammadov tagged a statue of former president Heydar Aliyev, father of current president Ilham Aliyev.
The additions to the statue read “Fuck the System” in English and “Congratulations on Slaves´ Day” in Azeri, both accompanied with the anarchist "A" symbol.
Facebook: nidavh.org
The Azeri inscription is a pun: “gul” in Azeri means flower, while “qul” means slave.
The two young men — both members of NIDA, a pro-democracy movement — were arrested the next day on drug charges, according to Amnesty International, but were only questioned about the graffiti.
On May 17, Mammadov’s lawyer wrote on Facebook that his client had been subjected to torture while in police custody, posting a picture of what he claimed to be a handwritten letter from Mammadov.
“They brought me to the office of the chief officer, where there were 7-8 officers in civilian clothes,” the letter reads. “They immediately began punching, slapping and kicking me and asking me why I had taken pictures of the graffiti, who was my associate and so on. However, I was not able to answer their questions as I lost my hearing and shortly thereafter lost consciousness.”
The letter went on to say that Mammadov signed a confession presented to him to end the beatings.
Azerbaijan’s Grave Crimes Court on Tuesday sentenced Ibrahimov to ten years in prison for drug possession, a sentence that Amnesty International says is an outrage.
“It is deeply disturbing to see the lengths to which Azerbaijani authorities will go to silence their critics,” Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International, said in a statement.
Mammadov’s trial is still ongoing but he faces a similar sentence to Ibrahimov if convicted.
Hayes Brown
BuzzFeed News World Editor
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