On August 26, lawyer Fariz Namazli met with NIDA activist Elgiz Gahraman who is held in Kurdakhani detention centre. According to the lawyer, Elgiz Gahraman’s body still bears marks of violence.
The lawyer said the representatives of Ombudsman’s Office had visited Elgiz Gahraman together with a doctor twice during the week. “At the first meeting, Elgiz Gahraman spoke about the tortures he had suffered at the Main Organized Crime Department (MOCD) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, in its press statement Ombudsman’s Office stated that there were no signs of violence on Elgiz Gahraman’s body. After lawyer Nemat Karimli refuted this claim, representatives of Ombudsman’s Office visited Elgiz Gahraman again on August 25. During the second meeting, as Elgiz put it, Ombudsman’s representatives asked why he was speaking about torture when ‘there were no marks of violence on his body’. Elgiz replied that though the signs of ill-treatment had gone away, he had been tortured, verbally abused and subjected to inhuman treatment. In order to investigate this it is not necessary that marks of torture should remain. But I should note that there still remains redness on Elgiz Gahraman’s stomach. During the first visit of the representatives of Ombudsman’s Office, Elgiz showed those red patches to the doctor, but the doctor attributed them to poor sanitation. Whereas, Elgiz had red patches also on his legs. Furthermore, Elgiz Gahraman complained of headaches resulting from baton blows to the head, but the doctor did not examine his head,” the lawyer said.
Fariz Namazli added that the youth activist is denied a meeting with his relatives. He is only allowed to phone them twice a week.