Advocate reports irreversible deterioration of Salekh Rustamov’s health

Turkish doctors diagnosed Salekh Rustamov with the brain cell regression, but the prisoner refused to end his hunger strike, which he has been continuing for 34 days already, an advocate of the prisoner reported. The Azerbaijani authorities have ignored numerous requests to release Salekh Rustamov, human rights defender Rufat Safarov notes.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on February 27, in Azerbaijan, Salekh Rustamov, a citizen of Russia, an activist of the Popular Front Party (PFPA), was sentenced to seven years and three months of imprisonment. Later, the Supreme Court (SC) reduced the sentence by two months. On November 6, Salekh Rustamov went on a hunger strike.

Today, advocate Bakhruz Bairamov has visited Salekh Rustamov at the medical institution of the Penitentiary Service. “Salekh Rustamov has been continuing his hunger strike for 34 days. His health state is rapidly deteriorating. When I visited him today, he could hardly speak. That is, he spoke something incoherently quietly and expressed his thoughts more with gestures. Today, before our meeting, he was visited by doctors from the chief medical department of the Ministry of Justice. The group of doctors also included Turkish psychologists. They stay in the country now to help veterans of the Karabakh war. The Turkish doctors told me that they diagnosed Salekh Rustamov with the beginning process of regression of brain cells that could not be restored. The above will lead to irreversible processes if Salekh Rustamov does not immediately stop his hunger strike. In this regard, I have again urged Salekh Rustamov to end his hunger strike. However, he is simply implacable,” Bakhruz Bairamov told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

Rufat Safarov, the executive director of the “Line of Defence” NGO, informed the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent that the human rights defenders did not receive any answer to their appeal to the country’s authorities with a request to release Salekh Rustamov. “Our organization appealed to the President of Azerbaijan. Then there were numerous appeals from other human rights institutions and collective petitions. However, the authorities do not respond to the appeals of the civil society. We do not understand such an attitude towards the person who has no political ambitions and who is a veteran of the first Karabakh war. We have already addressed international organizations in the hope that they will be able to influence the government. If Salekh Rustamov is not released and dies in prison, that will become a stain on the judicial system of Azerbaijan and the country’s image in the international arena,” Rufat Safarov concluded.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 9, 2021 at 02:53 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.