Relatives convince activist Salekh Rustamov not to go on a dry hunger strike

The health state of Russian citizen Salekh Rustamov, who has been on hunger strike for the tenth day in an Azerbaijani prison hospital, is close to critical, his advocate claims. Relatives convinced Salekh Rustamov not to stop drinking water, as he is extremely exhausted.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on February 27, the court sentenced Salekh Rustamov to seven years and three months of imprisonment. Later, the Supreme Court (SC) reduced the Salekh Rustamov’s sentence by two months. On November 6, the convict went on a hunger strike, and on November 10, he was placed in a punishment cell of a prison hospital. According to the activist’s son, doctors threatened Salekh Rustamov with forced feeding. The NGO “Line of Protection” called on President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev to assist in the release of Salekh Rustamov.

“Salekh is completely exhausted as a result of the hunger strike ... We convinced him not to go on a dry hunger strike, as he already severely undermined his health state,” convict’s brother Talekh Rustamov said.

Advocate Bakhruz Bairamov called the Salekh Rustamov’s health state close to critical. According to the advocate, the consular authorities of the Russian Federation did not show active participation in the fate of Salekh Rustamov.

The advocate also recalled that Salekh Rustamov began a hunger strike in protest against the fact that he would not be affected by the amnesty announced on November 5 and opposed the confiscation of the property of his relatives.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 15, 2021 at 07:41 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.