The lawyers of the human rights defender Leyla Yunus have reported that she was beaten in the Kurdakhani pretrial detention on September 23. In their statement published on September 24, they noted that the day before Leyla Yunus was taken out of her cell to another cell where the detention facility employee by surname Yagubov, who holds the rank of major, began to beat her.
“The major grabbed her hair and dragged her, and beat her. As Leyla Yunus’ defense counsels, we consider it shameful and unacceptable behavior. We demand the relevant authorities to immediately investigate this issue, to punish the perpetrators and to provide urgent aid to Leyla Yunus,” stated the lawyers.
The lawyers also noted that Leyla Yunus was prohibited to contact her relatives and friends for one month.
Leyla Yunus’ rights are defended by lawyers Elchin Gambarov, Fariz Namazli, Javad Javadov, Khalid Bagirov and Alayif Hasanov.
The Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice has denied the information about the beating of Leyla Yunus. They noted that it is another bluff by Leyla Yunus’ lawyers intended to keep her in the spotlight.
Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy, Leyla Yunus was arrested on July 30. She is charged with treason, tax evasion, fraud, illegal entrepreneurship and falsification of documents, and has been placed in detention.