The high-ranking employees of the detention center torture the prisoners right under the "No to torture!" billboard on the walls in Azerbaijani and English, which have been posted by the Ombudsman 

In this article, I will talk about why Baku Detention Center No. 1 is not a place of investigation but a torture center.

To start, I want to highlight that despite our repeated appeals to the management of the Penitentiary Service, the prison administration, and the Ombudsman, no significant action was taken. After that, I decided to record the cases of torture and inhuman treatment that I witnessed and heard and prepare a brief report covering the last six months.

I was arrested on November 20, 2023. Since November 22, I have been detained in the Baku Pre-trial Detention Center, which is commonly known as the "Kurdakhani Prison". During the first few weeks, I didn't know much about what was going on, as we often went to court for complaints. However, after December 20, I started hearing about cases of systematic torture. I began recording instances of torture from January of this year.

At first, I could only hear the sounds of torture: slaps, kicks, punches, fists, swearing, insults. Then I began to witness inhumane treatment and torture with my own eyes: beatings (severeinjuries on the face and body), hanging the prisoner with handcuffs from partitions with iron bars in the enclosures (hanging from above, handcuffing in the middle, tying from the very bottom), making the prisoner lying on the concrete floor for days, handcuffing one hand to the head of the bed and the other to the leg at the bottom of the bed for 12 hours at night, hanging the prisoner upside down by his hands and feet from iron bars and beating him with a baton, knocking the prisoner to the ground and beating, trampling, beating people who say they are disabled or sick, shaving, cursing, insulting, threatening...

Prisoners are usually tortured between 9 and 10 in the morning. Prisoners detained for violating some rule or suspected of committing a crime are brought in the evening or the morning, placed in the "kars" (Editor's addition: punishment or disciplinary cell which isolated from the other cells within the detention center), and handcuffed to the grille partitions for protesting and demanding their rights. Around 10 a.m., the deputies prison administration starts punishing those prisoners by beating, threatening, and insulting them.

Torture has become the management norm of the Penitentiary Service. Imagine, waking up in the morning and starting to eat or read a book, and suddenly you hear screams and sounds of torture. In this way, they not only punish the prisoner but also spoil the day of other prisoners and indirectly "teach them a lesson."

You protest, shout the 'No to Torture!' slogan posted by the Ombudsman on the walls, and the deputies come and ask in surprise, 'What's the matter?' Argument, protest, irritation... Then silence ensues. After a break of three to five days, the same scenario is repeated.

Elnur Ismayilov, the head of Baku Detention Center No. 1 and and his deputies justify violence saying that the beaten prisoners are the problematic ones. As if, if they don't beat them, the detention center will become unmanageable. However, under this pretext they try to cover up their incompetence in prison management. 

On March 13, an operative colonel named Rovshan from the Penitentiary Service visited the detention center. He, born in 1976, said is going to make an in-person report to General Mirsaleh Seyidov, the Chief of the Penitentiary Service. Rovshan said he came to the meeting on behalf of his Chief. Our conversation lasted about five hours. We talked about torture for an hour. I said, torture is a crime, but he insisted inhumane treatment. This indicated that General Seyidov was also aware of these practices and supported the torture of prisoners.If the management does not approve of such actions and maintains strict control, which officer or prison worker would have the audacity to systematically torture prisoners?

Every time I protest, the prison administration insists that torture, beating, cursing, and insulting are legitimate and justified measures. The 916 hotline of the Ombudsman and the "No to torture!" slogan in Azerbaijani and English are displayed in all corridors. Prisoners are tortured under these posters. Torture continues every week, sometimes every day. Sometimes, one person and sometimes 10-15 people are beaten at once.

They constructed illegal “kars” in each of the eight buildings with three floors. On the first floors, these isolation cells are numbered 28. Cell 28 of the 8th building is directly situated in front of the cell where I am kept. At night, they bring the prisoners to be beaten and lock them there, and in the morning, the deputy chiefs - mainly Lieutenant Colonel Jeyhun Hajiyev and Captain Javid Gulaliyev - start punishing those prisoners.

Captain Gulaliyev has just been appointed the first deputy of the preßtrial detention cell chief. Previously, he was the head of the control-regime department. It seems that Gulaliyev, who is in his 30s, is climbing the career ladder very quickly.

It was just past ten in the morning when the hallway erupted with shouting and noise once again. Captain Javid Gulaliyev was beating a prisoner named Ilkin Babayev, who claimed to be a captain himself. The dialogue I overheard went something like this:

Ilkin Babayev:

- Please, don't beat. I hardly stand on my feet.

Javid Gulaliyev:

- I became the first deputy by beating prisoners.

Ilkin Babayev:

- I can't stand on my feet! You are also a captain like me. Don't beat me! I know you, you are Etibar Pirverdiyev's nephew.

Javid Gulaliyev:

- I am the man's nephew and not (swears) a …’s nephew!

Again, beatings, swearing, insults...

Javid Gulaliyev’s uncle Etibar Pirverdiyev, the president of Azerenergy in 2018 when lights went out everywhere in Azerbaijan, and the country sank into darkness. Back then, uncle had plunged the country into darkness, and now his nephew has sunk the Baku Pr-trial Detention Center in torture.

Once, Jeyhun Hajiyev, who is deputy to Elnur Ismayilov, knocked down one of the prisoners and began beating him under his feet. The deputy is a big man, nearly 2 meters tall. He possibly weighs 110- 120 kg. The prisoner was not taller than Mr.Hajizev’s legs. Meanwhile, 7-8 other prisoners were waiting in line waiting for their turn to be beaten. The guards quickly rushed me back to my cell to prevent me from witnessing what was happening there.

On April 10, a prisoner named Orkhan was brought in at night and handcuffed to the iron bars of the prison building. Orkhan, who presented himself as a blogger, told me that the conditions in the cell are deplorable; there is no hand basin. When he protested and demanded his rights, they handcuffed him to the partitions of iron bars. Orkhan remained there until morning. The next day, Ceyhun Hajiyev punished him in the usual brutal manner.

A similar incident happened on May 23. A person arrested for a car accident was handcuffed to the iron bars. He was screaming and crying. This type of punishment is two-sided: Both the prisoner tied to iron bars and the other 100-150 prisoners kept in the cell are punished with noise and screams at night. Even the political prisoners kept on the second floor say that screams, slaps, kicks, and torture sounds can be heard in their cells as well.

It was the end of May when they brought another prisoner to the punishment cell. The left side of his face was completely bruised, swollen, and covered in blood. The prisoner named Abdullayev, probably 25-30 years old, an athletic, and possibly weighed between 95 and 100 kilos. They handcuffed him in a crucifixion-like position to the bed legs on the floor in the punishment cell in our building and left him in that position for 12-13 hours until morning.

One of the famous torturers in the prison is an ensign named Parviz Guliyev. He was the chief supervisor of the 1st floor at the 4th prison building. Parviz has a particular method of torture: he hangs prisoners upside down from iron bars, handcuffs their feet and hands, and then crucifies them in this inverted position before beating them with a truncheon.

Let's return to the issue of illegal "kars" in the building.

The newly appointed Minister of Justice, FaridAhmadov, visited the detention center on May 10. A few days before his arrival, there was a flurry of activity, including serious preparations and repair work. As part of these preparations, the iron-barred doors of the punishment cells were covered with solid doors equipped with breathing vents, similar to those in other cells. They wrote "Storage " on the doors. In this way, the Penitentiary Service's management deceived the new minister.

In other words, the isolation cells in the rooms number 28 were created arbitrarily and illegally. If all the 28th cells in the buildings were indeed legal isolation cells, why were their doors locked and labeled as "Storage" when the new minister visited the detention center? A thorough investigation must be conducted into all these illegalities and abuses, those responsible must be held accountable, and systematic torture must be stopped.

The torture „kings” of the "Kurdakhani" detention center are:

1. Jeyhun Hajiyev (lieutenant colonel)

2. Javid Gulaliyev (captain)

3. Parviz Guliyev (ensign)

During the first six months of 2024, I have recorded 58 instances of torture and inhumane treatment in Baku Detention Center N1. These are only the cases that I have personally counted and witnessed. Now, imagine the extent of torture and mistreatment in the temporary detention centers and prisons in Azerbaijan. These cases are not limited to the 8th prison building where I am held, but also committed on the floors of other prison buildings as well.

Ulvi Hasanli, director of "Abzas Media”