Rights defenders claim torture of religious activist in Azerbaijan

Razi Gumbatov, an activist of the "Muslim Unity" movement, gave confessions within the case of illegal drug dealing under torture, the NGO "Defence Line" has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 7, people in civilian clothes detained Razi Gumbatov, an activist of the "Muslim Unity" movement, and took him away to some unknown place. He was charged under the case of large-scale drug dealing: and on July 8, the court imprisoned him for four months; his defence appealed against the arrest. The case against Gumbatov has been fabricated; the real reason for persecuting him is in his posts in social networks, in which he criticized the Azerbaijani authorities, the activist's associates have suggested.

On July 23, the NGO "Defence Line" issued a statement, in which announced a violation of Gumbatov's rights. After the detention, he was deprived of the opportunity to notify his relatives, as well as to invite an advocate of his choice. He was allowed to contact his relatives only 16 days later; and during a telephone conversation he told that he had been tortured for six days of detention at one of power structures, says the NGO's document, which was received by the "Caucasian Knot".

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 24, 2021 at 04:23 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.