In response to today’s two year prison sentence against Mehman Huseynov, a prominent Azerbaijani blogger and activist, for defamation charges stemming from a complaint about police torture, Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Director of Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International said:
“Mehman Huseynov’s latest imprisonment is outrageous, deeply cynical and terrifying. The authorities must not keep throwing him into prison, for his peaceful activism, for being a critic, or for complaining about torture in police detention. Mehman Huseynov must be released immediately and unconditionally.
“Mehman Huseynov’s latest imprisonment is outrageous, deeply cynical and terrifying."
Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Director of Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International
“The authorities should focus their resources on investigating Mehman Huseynov’s allegations he was tortured rather than brushing the problem under the rug by throwing this former prisoner of conscience back behind bars.”
The charges were brought in response to a police officer’s complaint after Mehman Huseynov had claimed he had been tortured while he was in police detention for purportedly “disobeying police” in January 2017.
Mehman Huseynov has been repeatedly harassed by the authorities, including around his activism to highlight abuses in Azerbaijan when the country hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012.