Journalists meet with Gobustan prisoners on hunger strike

As APA reports, the journalists met with detainees on hunger strike Ali Guliyev, Georgi Giladze and Shakir Rzakhanov.

(Georgian Georgi Giladze committed two murders in his country and committed several crimes in Azerbaijan later on. He killed a woman and injured another woman in Baku. Shakir Rzakhanov was involved in brutal murder of his mate and his pregnant wife. As coming to Ali Guliyev, who faces charges on 18 episodes, committed several grave crimes, including manslaughters in Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. He was sentenced to death in all of the three states).

Giladze told the journalists that the Baku city court sentenced him to 15 years in jail. However, the Court of Appeal sentenced him to life in jail.

"We demand implementation of laws. We admit our grave crimes and apologize to all the sufferers for that. However, I must say, we have been reformed in the prison. So, we want to dedicate ourselves to good actions in freedom. By declaring hunger strike, we aim at restoring our rights," the lifer said.

The prisoners also protested to the court commuting lifer Samir Hajiyev’s punishment recently.

"We wonder why only Samir Hajiyev's appeal was satisfied among 89 prisoners. We think it is due to other reasons," the prisoners said.

All of the above mentioned three lifers complained of the severe punishments on them. They were dissatisfied with the journalists' question "You have committed severe crimes. So, why do you think it is severe punishment?."

They claimed that those (?), who committed more grave crimes, got freedom by money, “We are here, because we have no money. Our families are demanded money for including our names into the list of the pardoned.” However, the prisoners refused to say who demanded money from their families.

Chief of the Gobustan prison Sedaget Aghayev told the journalists that three prisoners declared hunger strike and were taken to medical-sanitary part of the prison.

"The prisoners aim at brining attention of the society to their problems. And they have achieved this. The representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross Justice Ministry, Ombudsman’s Office as well as Ombudsman Elmira Suleymanova and several human rights activists have visited the jail. They asked the prisoners to stop hunger strike. The prisoners are protesting against their punishments not to their living conditions in the prison. They want their punishments to be commuted. 89 life-term prisoners, who were previously sentenced to death, are held in this prison now," the prison chief said.

The chief also said only 46 of 89 lifers appealed to the Garadagh court for commuting their punishments. Five of them appealed to the Constitutional Court. The prison chief also complained of the prisoners dispatching false information to the society and said lawyer Elman Osmanov and some human rights defenders help them in this matter.

The journalists also met with other prisoners. Detainee Deyanet Karimov said he went on hunger strike from June 26 till July 18 protesting to the charges against him. His appeal was dismissed by the Constitutional Court, and then he appealed to the European Court (Deyanet Karimov is accused of a number of grave crimes and manslaughters, including the murder of ex-vice-speaker Afiyeddin Jalilov).

Another detainee Aliyusif Tahirov, who is also accused of several grave crimes and manslaughters, complained of the living conditions.

The journalists could not specify the number of the detainees declaring hunger strike. Thus, some of them are not going on hunger strike though they declared their joining the strike. There are a number of detainees held in this prison, who are facing the charges of committing grave crimes.