OMCT calls for fair trial of "Nardaran case"

The international community should intervene in the situation with human rights in Azerbaijan and ensure a fair trial against defendants in the "Nardaran case", who were subjected to violence and inhuman treatment. This was declared by the World Organization against Torture (known by its French abbreviation OMCT).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the trial of the "Nardaran case" began in Baku on August 3, 2016. On October 21, Talekh Bagirzade, one of the defendants and the leader of the "Muslim Unity" Movement, and 17 other defendants stated beatings at the SIZO (pre-trial prison); and four out of five policemen, questioned as witnesses, failed to confirm the defendants' participation in the riots.

The report of the OMCT was released on December 20.

In Nardaran, members of the "Muslim Unity" were subjected during detention to "severe beatings," and some of them were killed. According to the report prepared by the OMCT, the detainees were tortured at the police department during three days.

The court repeatedly postponed the consideration of the complaint about torture filed by Talekh Bagirzade, the leader of the "Muslim Unity", until he had to withdraw it because of the threat of further violence. In the future, all the demands to investigate the facts of torture have been dismissed, state the authors of the OMCT report.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.