According to Bakhtiyar Guliyev’s father Samandar Guliyev, his son passed him a statement during their meeting in prison. “We were meeting in Kurdakhani and he showed me a piece of paper behind the glass. It was his statement. He said he was leaving NIDA Civic Movement and renouncing his lawyers,” Mr. Guliyev told Meydan TV and mentioned that his son wrote the statement voluntarily, without any outside pressure.
“The reason behind this move is that I found myself during my stay in prison and realized that I was promoting wrongful ideas influenced by subversive forces. I request the authorities to stop considering me a political prisoner,” read the statement, which was posted on the website of the Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice.
Bakhtiyar Guliyev also appealed to President Aliyev for pardon and asked for his picture to be removed from the “Azadliq” newspaper’s list of prisoners of conscience.
Mr. Guliyev was sentenced to seven years in prison on the charge of organization of mass disorders in May 2014 together with seven other members of the movement.
