Azerbaijan detains another citizen with Czech asylum

Rovshan and Elshan's father, Sadai Nazarov, was persecuted in Azerbaijan in the past. Although he also held Czech asylum, he was arrested in Azerbaijan two years ago and later released in reaction to pressure from Czech diplomacy and international organisations.

Elshan Nazarov said that the police have physically attacked his brother and are trying to force him to confess to an act he allegedly committed as a juvenile 14 years ago.

"His only guilt is that he is a son of Professor Sadai Nazarov whom the Azeris accused of treason on his return [home] in January 2005 and whom they eventually acquitted in face of pressure from the Czech Republic and international organisations," Elshan Nazarov said.

Rovshan Nazarov arrived in his homeland on March 19. He was arrested in the town Ganja seven days later.

Sadai Nazarov left Azerbaijan in 1994 over persecution by the then President Heydar Aliyev's regime. He was granted Czech asylum three years later. CTK

/www.ceskenoviny.cz/