On February 20, the police detained several civil activists at a protest near the Baku Court of Appeal (BCA), demanding the release of human rights activist Bakhtiyar Hajiyev. One of the detainees, Ali Melikov, told Turan that the police threatened him with sexual violence.

According to Melikov, the police took him away from BCA to the 27th police station in the Yasamal district. There, the police used psychological violence. Seeing the dyed hair on Melikov’s head, he was threatened with sexual violence with gestures and obscene expressions. He was accused of belonging to sexual minorities, using obscene language. The same police officers joked that Bakhtiyar Hajiyev vomited bile outside the courthouse because sexual pressure was applied to him.

Then Melikov was taken away by the Sabail police department, but refused to enter the building, demanding the services of a lawyer. Then the detainee was released and returned home.

“I intend to hire a lawyer to get the police officers punished. At the same time, I am not sure that I will achieve justice since the threat of sexual violence against me was used in the 27th department last summer. When I turned to the head of the department with a complaint, he said that I had no evidence. Yesterday, I also had no evidence, since the police take away the phones from the detainees,” Melikov said in an interview with Turan.

At the request of the agency, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan stated that Ali Melikov traditionally slanders the police, the attitude towards him in the department was correct, said the representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Nurlan Aliyev.

The activists of the “Movement 18” Afiyaddin Mammadov and Samir Sultanov, who protested near the court building, were administratively arrested for 30 days under Articles 510 and 535.1 of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. Activists do not consider themselves guilty. They are told that they are convicted for proclaiming slogans at the court

Source: Turan News Agency