Defence claims rights violation of Azerbaijani oppositionist Tofig Yagublu

The police have seized a cell phone from the arrested politician Tofig Yagublu and deleted his records in social networks, his daughter, Nigyar Khazi, has reported. His advocate treats the police's actions as a violation of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Tofig Yagublu, a member of the "Musavat" Party and of the coordinating centre of the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF), was detained on March 22, 2020. His daughter said that when he was in his car, another car drove into him; and the people thereof began behaving aggressively. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) claimed that it was Yagublu who committed an accident and attacked people. The activist believes that he fell victim to provocation.

On March 22, policemen took Yagublu's phone away, when he wanted to hand it over to his wife, his daughter has stated.

According to her story, on March 27, "the posts that could have caused his arrest" were removed from his Facebook page. "In them, he had criticized authorities' actions in countering the coronavirus ... The removal of these posts is another confirmation that he was arrested for criticizing the authorities, that is, for political reasons," said Nigyar Khazi.

Elchin Sadygov, Tofig's advocate, has treated the police's actions as unlawful because the phone "was seized illegally without a court order," while hacking the phone and deleting the posts from the social network was "an obvious invasion of privacy and a violation of the freedom of expression."