Campaigners against torture in Azerbaijan condemn authorities' passiveness

Organizers of the campaign "End to torture!" have condemned the authorities' inaction on the issue of ill-treatment of detained oppositionists and activists and stated their intent to attract the international community to the solution thereof. They have presented their action plan within the ten-day-long public campaign.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 28, in Azerbaijan, the Committee against Repression and Torture announced the launch of a public campaign under the slogan "End to torture!" The campaign organizing committee includes the activists well-known in Azerbaijan.

"In recent years, authorities have widely used torture. The most sophisticated methods have been used against the figurants in the so-called 'Nardaran case', the 'Ganja case' and the 'Terter case'," said Ogtai Gyulyalyev, the coordinator of the above Committee against Repression and Torture.

He has noted that the goal of the campaign is to "organize public resistance to torture." In particular, informational and educational materials will be posted in social networks.

Irada Nariman, a deputy chair of the Supreme Mejlis of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), has noted the increasing number of arbitrary arrests.

"While in 2016, only 32 people were arrested for political reasons, during ten months of this year – already 80," she has stated.

According to Eldaniz Guliev, a member of the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF), "the goal of torture is to instil fear in the society and suppress the people's will."