The popular Azerbajani rap singer Parviz Guluzade, known by the pseudonym Paster, has been arrested, and allegedly tortured by police. He had recently released a song titled ‘Gang’, which criticized Azerbaijan’s Pasha Bank.
News of his arrest and alleged torture was reported on 26 December by independent Azerbaijani journalist Habib Muntazir. In his recent songs Guluzade also criticized the corruption and arbitrariness of Azerbaijani authorities.
According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Pasha bank, the largest bank in the country, belongs to the relatives of first lady and vice-president of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva.
On 27 December, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan confirmed that Guluzade has been arrested the previous day for ‘violating public order under influence of drugs’ and ‘disobeying police orders’.
He was given 30 days of administrative detention.
Following Guluzade’s arrest, a social media campaign with the hashtag #freePaster began it quickly won the endorsements of journalists and activists throughout Azerbaijan, as well as the support of major opposition figures including Popular Front Party leader Ali Karimli and Ilgar Mammadov, the leader of the ReAl party.
A prominent blogger ‘kidnapped and beaten’
On the evening of 27 December, popular blogger and former political prisoner Mehman Huseynov held a single-person picket in front of the Ministry of Internal Affairs calling for Guluzade’s release.
Huseynov was released from prison in March, after serving two years on charges of defamation, after accusing the police of abducting and torturing him.
Turan News Agencyreported on Friday that a few minutes after Huseynov began his picket he was detained by police and taken to an unknown location.
On Saturday morning it had been reported that Huseynov was beaten and left on the outskirts of Baku.
Mehman Huseynov holding a poster. Photo: Meydan TV
Huseynov said that he was beaten by five police officers.
‘They pulled my shirt on my head […] they told me that I was trying to organise a rally’, he said. ‘They were beating me filming it with a phone camera.’
He also said that police officers threatened to rape him, and warned him not to protest in the street again. Huseynov said he plans to appeal to the Prosecutor’s Office.
During a medical examination on Sunday, numerous injuries on Huseynov’s neck, ribs, arms, and legs were documented. The previous day, he was examined in a private clinic, where he was diagnosed with a blood clot in his leg.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs toldTrend on Saturday that allegations that Huseynov was beaten by police are ‘completely groundless’.
Mehman Huseynov being beaten. Photo: Meydan TV
Huseynov also ran for Azerbaijan’s municipal elections, which were held on 23 December. According to the Central Election Commission, he did not win. He has claimed that the results were falsified, adding that observers were not allowed to watch the vote counting process in a majority of polling stations.
On Saturday, Norwegian Human Rights House Foundation condemned the ‘ill-treatment’ of Huseynov and asked the authorities ‘to swiftly and thoroughly investigate the incident and bring to justice those responsible’.
The OSCE Special Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Desir, also expressed concerns about Huseynov’s beating.
‘I call on the authorities to conduct a swift and thorough investigation into this matter, and bring those responsible to justice’, he wrote on Twitter.
Over the last month, Azerbaijan’s official government news agency Azertac has published multiple articles focusing on ethnic Azerbaijani candidates running for the ruling Georgian Dream party, while failing to provide a platform for Azerbaijani opposition candidates.
On 16 October, Azertac interviewed Georgian Dream MP Zaur Darghalli, who said that his party had guaranteed stability in Georgia, and elaborated on how it was able to keep the peace for the last 12 years.
‘These elections are
Ethnic Talysh activist Mirhafiz Jafarzade, who advocated for the creation of Talysh school textbooks in Azerbaijan, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison on charges of treason.
Jafarzade, who is also a Russian citizen, was found guilty of treason in the form of espionage on Thursday. Jafarzade was detained by the authorities in November 2022.
That day, pro-government media reported that the trial had determined that Jafarzade worked ‘in secret cooperation with foreign special services
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said Azerbaijan is taking ‘constructive’ actions to facilitate the right to return of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, as evidence mounts of the demolition of residential and cultural heritage buildings in Nagorno-Karabakh.
‘We have repeatedly commented on and emphasised the constructive steps taken by Baku to provide the population that left their native places with the opportunity to return there’, Zakharova said during a press briefing o
Peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan appear to be at a standstill as Armenia continues to push for an agreement to be signed ahead of November’s COP29 summit in Baku.
On Tuesday, Sargis Khandanyan, an MP from Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party, told Armenpress that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan offered to organise a meeting to conclude and sign a peace agreement ahead of the summit, which is scheduled to be held in Baku between 11–22 November.
He said that Pashinyan made the offer
