Baku, Azerbaijan, March 14
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Detention visits by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) aim at ensuring that detainees are treated with dignity and humanity, Trend learned from the ICRC head office.
The ICRC comments came as a response to Trend’s inquiry regarding the facts of torture against Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov, who were taken hostage while visiting their native lands in Azerbaijan’s occupied Kalbajar district.
“The ICRC's working modalities are based on confidentiality, in particular - but not exclusively - when it comes to detention visits. Our visits, aim precisely at ensuring that detainees are treated with dignity and humanity, and in full respect of international norms,” said the ICRC.
Moreover, ICRC Baku Office's Public Relations Department head Ilaha Huseynova told Trend that the committee representatives regularly visit these detainees to monitor treatment with them and conditions of their detention as well as to help to ensure that they are able to maintain contact with their families.
“The last such visit took place in February 2018. However, the ICRC does not share results of its monitoring/observations in detention places publically, but discusses them bilaterally and confidentially with the concerned authorities only,” she added.
The facts of torture against Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov, who were taken hostage while visiting their native lands in Azerbaijan’s occupied Kalbajar district, were earlier posted on the website of the International Committee for the Protection of Human Rights.
Dilgam Asgarov’s lawyer Anar Bagirov earlier said in an interview with Trend that they are constantly tortured, and this is not something new.
“We have all the necessary information that we constantly send to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in order to speed up the process of considering the case,” he said.
During an operation in July 2014 in Shaplar village of Azerbaijani Kalbajar district occupied by Armenia, the Armenian special forces killed an Azerbaijani, Hasan Hasanov, and took hostage two other Azerbaijanis, Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov. A "criminal case" was initiated against them. Afterwards, a "court" sentenced Asgarov to life imprisonment and Guliyev to 22 years in prison.
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