Azerbaijani Hunger Striker Denied Bail

Lamiya Adilgizi

Freelance Azerbaijani journalist

Friday, 27 January, 2023

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Concerns are growing over the health of prominent Azerbaijani activist Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, imprisoned on charges his defence team and rights groups state are politically motivated.

The 40-year-old was arrested on December 9, 2022 on charges of hooliganism and contempt of court and sentenced to 50 days of pre-trial detention. On January 24, he was denied bail during a brief court appearance in Baku, shortly after the same court granted a prosecutor’s request to extend his arrest until February 28. He faces between three and five years in prison.

“We asked for his release on bail, offering 10,000 manat (5,900 US dollars), but the court did not grant it," Zibeyde Sadigova, one of his lawyers, told IWPR.

Hajiyev, who leads the no-profit and independent think tank Public Policy Institute (PPI), has been on hunger strike since January 9 to protest against what he said was an illegal arrest under a false criminal case.

The lack of food is taking a serious toll on his health.

“[He] has lost weight, it becomes visible in the face and body, he had tied the waist of his pants with a string during the meeting. He could not stand, he is quite weak, he's had stomach bleeding and his blood pressure is fluctuating,” Sadigova said.

The prison service stated that Hajiyev remains under medical observation in the detention centre’s medical unit. Lawyers have requested he undergo MRI (magnetic and CT scans, but have not yet received a response.

Vugar Hajiyev confirmed that his brother’s health was deteriorating and called on supporters to mobilise for his immediate release.

“[He] looked weak in our meeting. His face and hands turned white. He could not hold a glass of water in his hand,” the brother was quoted as saying by Turan news agency, adding that he had been detained for more than a month without any official investigation.

On January 21, Hajiyev wrote a public letter stating he was aware of the risks of his hunger strike but that he saw no other way to get his voice heard.

“Unfortunately, due to the fact that the courts in our country act as a notary of people who are maniacally trying to take revenge on me even while I am in prison, the only way to convey my voice to the country's public, international organisations, and decision-makers… if there are any, is to sacrifice my life,” the letter read. It was posted on the Facebook profile of Rufat Safarov, co-founder of the Baku-based human rights organisation Defence Line.

Hajiyev, a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, ran for parliament in 2010 and 2020. In March 2011 he was sentenced to two years imprisonment for evading mandatory military service and released in 2012 after the involvement of then-US secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Hajiyev’s recent detention have raised international concerns, with human rights organisations asking for his immediate release. The EU called on the Azerbaijani authorities “to ensure a transparent and impartial investigation of his case” while the US state department was “deeply troubled by the arrest and the detention of Mr Hajiyev” and urged the authorities to release the activist “expeditiously.”

Hours before Hajiyev was arrested last December, the state department released a list of individuals it sanctioned for human rights abuses. The list includes Karim Alimardanov, a senior official of the ministry of internal affairs’ department for combating organised crime, “for his involvement in gross human rights violations, namely the torture of prisoners in 2015 and 2016”. He is the first Azerbaijan government official to be put under international sanctions.

Defence Line’s Safarov told IWPR that Hajiyev’s imprisonment was a predictable outcome following the sanctions were announced: he was involved in gathering the relevant documentation and was due to travel to the US.

“When he was detained in front of his house, he was told that if he does not stop criticising Vilayat Eyvazov [Azerbaijan’s interior minister] and leave the ministry alone, more severe measures would be taken [against him] … Eyvazov tried many times to arrest Hajiyev,” Safarov said, adding that his arrest could only have been possible with the permission of President Ilham Aliyev.

“With the sanctions, I think the ministry was finally able to receive the blessings of the head of the state,” he concluded.

On January 15, Hajiyev’s think tank was ordered to vacate its office located at the business complex Caspian Plaza in Baku. His Facebook profile was hacked and reportedly false accusations were leaked through it, an issue he could not confirm because in jail. His account has been since deactivated.

Human rights activist and journalist Arzu Geybullayeva maintained that Hajiyev’s arrest was part of an ongoing crackdown against government critics.

The inhumane treatment of prisoners, police violence during protests, zero tolerance towards online or offline criticism and sham trials had become routine, she continued.

Hajiyev’s sentencing and repressive legislation were  “just a handful of the most recent examples illustrating this grim reality,” Geybullayeva told IWPR in an interview from Istanbul.

“Azerbaijan's traditional civil society and its civic activists had hoped that after the Second Karabakh war, the country's leadership would change its repressive tune and take steps towards mending its democratic record,” she added, referring to the 2020 war against Armenia for the control of the Nagorny Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan won. “They were deeply mistaken in having such naive hopes for it was clear this would never happen. Not during the leadership of the current government."