According to the lawyer, the theologian’s latest 5-day solitary confinement penalty expired on 6 March. After that, he was given another 3-day penalty. Samadov’s relatives wanted to meet with him in Prison #12 on the occasion of Nowruz holiday but were told that Samadov had been transferred to a solitary cell and the term of punishment was said to be two months.
Citing the absence of a two-month solitary confinement penalty in the law, the lawyer noted that the maximum length of the penalty provided for in the Code of Execution of Punishments was 15 days. “In the absence of working days due to the holiday, it is impossible to meet with Movsum Samadov and find out what has happened. The soonest I can meet with him is 27 March,” the lawyer said.
Lawyer Yalchin Imanov believes that Samadov’s placement into solitary confinement yet for another time is part of the plans to send him back to the closed prison in Gobustan. “It will not be a surprise for us if the prison management soon applies to court to change Movsum Samadov’s detention regime, because the systematic punishment of the man on such excuses as ‘you perform prayer in the [prison] barracks’ or ‘you create anti-sanitary conditions’ is, in our opinion, aimed at this goal,” Imanov noted.
Background: Movsum Samadov was sentenced to 12 years in jail in 2011, on charges of illegal possession of weapons and seizure of power. The European Court of Human Rights has started communication on his case.