The leader of the Muslim Unity Movement (MMU), Taleh Bagirazde, went on a hunger strike in prison.
This was reported to Turan by the wife of Bagirzade Leyla Ismailzade.
According to her, after seven years of detention in Gobustan prison, Bagirzade was transferred from Gobustan prison to colony number 12 on November 26.
“Immediately upon arrival, the deputy head of the colony spoke abusive words against Taleh, insulting his honor and dignity. In protest, Tale went on a hunger strike under the slogan “End oppression!” Ismayilzadeh said.
According to her, the incident with insults is aimed at provoking Bagirzade in order to justify his subsequent return to a covered prison with harsher conditions.
Information about the moral and physical pressure on Bagirzade in colony number 12 was also confirmed by the executive director of the human rights organization “Protection Line” Rufat Safarov.
“In the Gobustan prison, convicts are kept by two people in a cell. In the colony, the regime is different – “open”, that is, the prisoners live in large barracks. Thus, in colony number 12, Bagirzade will remain among 2-3 thousand people.
Apparently, they do not want to allow this, and they are trying to draw him into various provocations in order to return him to the Gobustan prison again, where he is tightly isolated from the rest of the prisoners,” Safarov said.
The Penitentiary Service could not be reached for comment.
In 2015, Bagirzade was arrested during a special operation in Nardaran and sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of terrorism, an attempt to change the constitutional order, the creation of an illegal armed group, etc.
He is recognized as a political prisoner.