The imprisoned editor of the realliq.info website, Ikram Rahimov, complained of violations of his rights in jail No. 10.
According to his relatives, on December 28 Rahimov began a hunger strike in protest against his transfer from jail No. 6 to penal institution No. 10, stopped ten days later due to a sharp deterioration in his health.
“The pressure on Ikram continues. He has not been allowed to call home for the past week, although by law he has the right to communicate by telephone for 15 minutes twice a week. In addition, over the past week he was twice refused a meeting with visitors. Today, colleagues went to him, but they were also refused a meeting. We are worried about this, perhaps Ikram is also under pressure,” relatives of the journalist said.
It has not yet been possible to get comments from the Prison Service.
Rahimov was arrested in October 2018 after the publication of an open letter criticizing Ali Hasanov, the then assistant to the head of state.
On June 12, 2018, he was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison. In protest, he began a hunger strike, which he stopped on the 30th day – September 5.
On September 18, the Court of Appeal confirmed Rahimov’s guilt of extortion by means of threats, but by applying the Article 62 of the Criminal Code (the imposition of a lower sentence prescribed by law); the prison term was reduced to three years.
A number of international journalistic organizations condemned the conviction of Rahimov.
info
IRFS considers the arrest of Ikram Rahimov an illegal politically motivated prosecution of a journalist for his criticism of senior officials and calls on the Azerbaijani government to release him immediately.