Azerbaijan, Baku, 17 January / Тrend corr K. Zarbaliyeva / Jailed Elchin Amiraslanov, the former head of the Azerbaijani Gazakh regional office of OMON (Special Police Divisions), who was on a hunger strike in the Azerbaijani Gobustan Closed Prison, was taken for medical treatment within the prison.
The head of the Prison Kazim Abdullayev said that Ilgar Amiraslanov was the brother of Elchin Amiraslanov. Elchin did not give up his hunger strike.
According to the Central Office of the Penitentiary Service at the Azerbaijani Justice Ministry, the life-term prisoners, Elchin Amiraslanov, head of the Gazakh office of OMON (Special Police Divisions), Shakir Rzakhanov, Rustam Mehdiyev and Zaur Suleymanov, began a hunger-strike on 12 January demanding a meeting with high-ranking officials.
Ilgar Amiraslanov said to Trend that his brother went on a hunger strike on 6 January to protest against the maintenance conditions in the prison and to demand that his life imprisonment sentence be reduced to 15 years.
On 15 January, Ilgar Amiraslanov met with the head of the Prison Kazim Abdullayev who did not allow him to meet his brother. "The health of my brother in bad. I want to meet him and ask him to stop the hunger strike," Ilgar said. Elchin Amiraslanov has a stomach disease. In addition, prior to being imprisoned he had been operated on his head and had been shot in his leg.
However, a source at the Central Office of the Penitentiary Service said "Amiraslanov has no health problems. He was taken to the medical department just for a medical check-up,"
Rzakhanov and Sultanov are still on hunger-strike.
Some 84 prisoners serve their term in Gobustan closed prison, whose death penalty was changed by life imprisonment. After cancelling the death penalty the number of prisoners reached 128. The life-prisoners held numerous hunger-strikes demanding to decrease their punishment term.
The prisoners consider that after abolishing death penalty the term of their prison must be changed by gravest punishment of the Criminal Code - 15 years of imprisonment.