Blogger Mehman Huseynov has been on a hunger strike for six days already. However, on December 30, at the insistence of his brother in the political emigration, human rights activist Emin Huseynov, he stopped his dry hunger strike due to his critical state of health.
“Yesterday we spoke on the phone. On the fifth day of the dry hunger strike, Mehman became ill. Mehman suffers from varicose veins and his legs almost disappeared from dehydration, and he is paralyzed. In addition, he had fainting,m which caused him to call doctors. They made injections so Mehman would come to his senses.
After my urgent requests, he agreed to stop the dry hunger strike and take liquid. A dry hunger strike has already threatened his life. On the sixth and seventh days, the processes in the body would become irreversible and it would not have been possible to save his life. I convinced him to take a liquid and continue the fight. He should not die, he should live and continue his work,” the executive director of the Institute for Reporters Freedom and Safety, Emin Huseynov, said to Turan.
He called the new absolutely fabricated case against M. Huseynov “blatant outrage, outrage upon the right and freedom of expression.”
“Unfortunately, this repressive act has not received due international censure and condemnation and demands for the authorities of Azerbaijan to stop violating the rights of Mehman Huseynov. So far, Reporters Without Borders and OSCE Special Representative on Freedom of the Media Arlem Dezir have responded to this. The Institute for Reporters Freedom and Safety believes that, despite the holidays, international organizations and governments of democratic countries should promptly condemn another flagrant repressive act and call for the immediate and unconditional release of Mehman Huseynov,” said E. Huseynov.
In particular, the IRFS addressed its appeal in a statement on the occasion of the new accusation against M. Huseynov to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the President and the Secretary General of the PACE, the CE Commissioner for Human Rights, the heads of the OSCE structures, the European Commission and the European Parliament, the US Government, and the governments of Canada and the EU countries.
* Mehman Huseynov was arrested in March 2017 and sentenced to 2 years in prison under a libel suit filed by the head of the Nasimi district police.
On December 26, he was charged with a new charge of beating a prison employee and placed in a punishment cell. In protest, he went on a dry hunger strike.
Human rights activists are convinced that Huseynov is being persecuted for exposing corruption among high-ranking officials, as well as criticizing the authorities.