28 November 2019, 23:57
In Azerbaijan, relatives of torture victims voice details of Terter case
Azerbaijani soldiers were tortured with electric current, drowning in water, and throwing from building windows, while investigators wanted to force the suspects to confess to treason. This was reported to the BBC Russian Service by relatives of the Azerbaijani soldiers involved in the case. The victims are not satisfied with the investigation into the so-called Terter case.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 7 and November 14, the relatives of the people, killed and sentenced in the Terter case, demanded to rehabilitate the killed persons, review their cases, and release the people involved in the case.
A group of military men and civilians was accused of collaborating with the Armenian secret services and plotting acts of sabotage. During the investigation, eight persons were tortured to death, and four of them were later rehabilitated posthumously.
According to a wife of Ensign Ruslan Odjagverdiev, one of the suspects tortured to death, on June 15, 2017, she got a call from the military unit where her husband was serving and she was informed that he had been injured. In the morning, relatives of Ruslan Odjagverdiev were informed of his death. It was reported that the Ruslan Odjagverdiev's death was caused by heart failure during training.
According to his widow, Ruslan Odjagverdiev was defamed by another soldier who claimed he had done so under a threat of death. In turn, a torturer of Ruslan Odjagverdiev said that the ensign refused to recognize himself as an Armenian spy.
Salekh Gafarov, the retired 39-year-old Lieutenant Colonel, who was taken away from his home, fell another victim to torture, his wife Natavan reported. The body of her husband was handed over to her two weeks later, without permission to open his coffin. Torturers tied up the Salekh Gafarov's hands and feet and tortured him with drowning in water and with electric current, they pulled out his nails, broken his jaw, dropped him from the second floor, and then continued to torture him until he fell into a coma, the widow of Salekh Gafarov voiced the testimony of witnesses.
Vagif Abdullaev, a former squadron commander, one of the victims in the Terter case, is not satisfied with the trial in the case on torture. According to the officer, he was deprived of food, and torturers took off his clothes and poured him with cold water, beat him, and tortured him with electric current. Then Vagif Abdullaev was dismissed from the army.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 28, 2019 at 05:21 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
