In Baku, Committee in Defence of Hilal Mamedov's Rights urges Ilham Aliev to express his attitude to activist's arrest

The criminal case against Hilal Mamedov, the editor-in-chief of the Azerbaijani newspaper "Tolyshi Sado" (Voice of Talysh) and the deputy head of the Talysh Cultural Centre, was fabricated to punish him for his active civil position and human rights activities. This was stated at a press conference by members of the "Committee to Protect Hilal Mamedov's Rights", established in Baku. They published an appeal to the head of state, requesting to express his attitude to the arrest of the activist.

Today's press conference of the "Committee for to Protect Hilal Mamedov's Rights" claimed grave gross violations of law during the investigation into the case against the journalist.

Officers, who conducted search in activist's apartment, failed to present any sanctions, wife of Hilal Mamedov asserts

Bakhar Mamedova, the wife of the arrested journalist, stated that she was shocked by savagery, tyranny, brutality, and rudeness of persons, who on June 21 conducted the search in their apartment.

According to the woman, on that day, 25 persons in civilian clothes, without presenting their documents, broke into their apartment and forced all people, including an 80-year-old father of Hilal Mamedov, into one room. According to Bakhar Mamedova, everything was turned upside down in their apartment; and then those people stated that they allegedly found in a pocket of a single jacket of Hilal Mamedov a small package of drugs.

"We live very modestly. I had no money to buy rice, and in the morning, I looked into the pocket of my husband to take money. There was no money there, and I even muttered to myself that Hilal left the apartment and left no money. Then, when I already heard about the Hilal's detention, I again looked into his pocket to take medication against asthma for him, to prepare necessary things to pass over to him. However, I found no medication or anything else. When I told about that to the people, who conducted the search, one of them laughed and told me: "Well, were we not able to plant drugs there?" I was just shocked by such lawlessness and impudence," the woman says.

The wife of the arrested journalist has added that the search was conducted without sanction and without witnesses.

In his turn, lawyer Ramiz Mamedov, stated that almost two weeks passed after the arrest of Hilal Mamedov; however, till that time, no blood and urine samples had been taken from him for tests. Meanwhile, investigators hastily got the results of chemical examination of the "found" substances, and "found out that it was heroin."

The lawyer also stated that Hilal Mamedov was subjected to physical pressure during detention. In particular, according to the lawyer, his body bears marks of violence below his knee and in place of location of his right ribs, and the Nizami District Prosecutor's Office conducts the investigation.

According to the lawyer, the very fact that evidence was obtained by unlawful means may already be grounds for termination of the criminal case.

Rafiq Djalilov: Hilal Mamedov's arrest caused by decision to resume publication of newspaper "Tolyshi Sado"

Rafiq Djalilov, the deputy head of the Talysh Cultural Centre, believes that the preparation of the Hilal Mamedov's arrest was started two months ago. According to him, on May 25 and 26, the newspaper "Gyundem Khabar" (Breaking News) published articles, asserting that the newspaper "Tolyshi Sado" had dealt with separatism issues and that the head of the Baku metro created conditions for that, allowing its sale in the metro.

"In fact, the newspaper 'Tolyshi Sado' (Voice of Talysh) has not been published for one year and two months already. And in the metro, the newspaper 'Tolyshon Sado' (Voice of Talyshes), published by me, was sold, and our newspaper contains no separatism issues. I visited the edition office of the newspapers 'Gyundem Khabar' (Breaking News), and then such publications were stopped. Our reaction apparently prompted the persons, interested in Hilal Mamedov's arrest, to retract the scenario, and they came up with another option to slander Hilal Mamedov," Rafiq Djalilov stated.

According to him, the meeting of the Talysh Cultural Centre, held on June 9 in the village of Makhmudavar of the Masalli District, which decided to resume the publication of the newspaper "Tolyshi Sado", precipitated the arrest of Hilal Mamedov.

"The 'Committee in Defence of Hilal Mamedov's Rights' called on President Ilham Aliev to express his attitude to the activist's arrest. The authors of the appeal are more than 40 well-known politicians, scientists, public figures, representatives of creative intelligentsia, and journalists. They urge the President to condemn the Hilal Mamedov's arrest, and they believe that fact will contribute to his immediate release.

In the disseminated appeal of Hilal Mamedov to residents of the country, the journalist stated that immediately after his detention, athletic men beat him in a car and told him: "When will you become clever?", "When will you stop insulting authorities in the Facebook?", "When will you stop inviting foreign journalists?"

At the same time, Hilal Mamedov emphasizes that the video "Who are you? Come on, goodbye!", which he posted on the Internet, aroused great interest among the Russian media, and he was visited by the NTV Channel crew, whom he invited to the evening of Talysh folklore, held on June 13 in the city of Astara in the south of Azerbaijan.

Local authorities tried to force Hilal Mamedov to cancel the evening; however, the event still took place. According to Hilal Mamedov, immediately after his detention, he was told: "When drugs are pulled out of your pocket, then you will say 'goodbye'."

It should be noted that the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) denied the political background in the case against Hilal Mamedov.