His lawyer says that he has problems with his health, he can hardly walk
On March 30, the Garadagh District Court heard the motion to release the imprisoned chairman of the Salyan organization of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), Alizamin Salayev, to house arrest.
The PFPA activist, who has been on hunger strike for 52 days in prison, was brought to court.
Alizamin Salayev said in his speech in court that he is innocent, and that he was slandered. He emphasized that at the time of the incident, he did not have a knife on him, nor did he stab anyone.
“I was defamed because of my political activity,” said Salayev.
His lawyer, Nemat Karimli, asked to change the pretrial detention measure against his client to house arrest. According to the defender, there is no reason to choose a preventive measure against Alizamin Salayev -the investigation can be continued without him being detained.
However, judge Urfan Mursalov did not grant the request.
Lawyer Nemet Karimli told Meydan TV that he will file an appeal against the decision of the Garadagh District Court.
According to his lawyer, Salayev is already having difficulty walking, saying that the hunger that lasted for almost two months caused serious problems in his client’s health. Despite this, he is not under constant medical supervision in the Baku Pre-trial Detention Center, where he is still being held – he is kept in solitary confinement, and he has not been transferred to the medical-sanitary part of the detention center:
“He has lost enough weight. He moves by force.”
Despite this, the activist said that he insisted on continuing the hunger strike.
On February 8, the Garadagh District Court issued an arrest warrant for Alizamin Salayev. He is charged with Article 221.3 of the Criminal Code (hooliganism by using a weapon or an object as a weapon).
In the materials of the criminal case, it is claimed that the PPA activist injured a person named Natig Suleymanov with a knife.
However, Salayev said in court that this accusation is a lie. According to him, on the evening of February 6, when he was waiting for a car on the side of the road to return to his house, he saw an unknown person coming towards him swearing. That person suddenly put his hand in his pocket and took out a knife. At that time, he realized that what was happening was a provocation and when he tried to push him away, a lot of people came out: “I realized that they planned to arrest me. “
Salayev repeatedly resisted the police and so on. He was arrested on administrative charges. On April 20, 2020, he was sentenced to 2 years and 3 months in prison under Articles 147.2 (accusing a serious crime) and 148 (insult) of the Criminal Code. At that time, he was punished based on the complaint of Hamza Azizov, an employee of the Salyan District Police Department.
Sometime before his arrest, the activist published a video of his argument with the mentioned police officer on social networks. In that video, Salayev accused Hamza Azizov of assaulting a woman living in the district.
Shortly after the video was released, Alizamin Salayev was administratively arrested for 30 days. He stated that he was tortured while being detained, as a result of which he suffered serious health problems. After being released from administrative detention, he underwent an operation due to health problems.
After that, Hamza Azizov filed a case against him in court as a special accusation and demanded his arrest.
