Young activist and rapper Jamal Ali’s relatives were taken to Baku Municipal Police Station, Jamal Ali told Meydan TV.
They were subsequently released later in the day. He claims that the reason for their detainment was his latest rap music video, “Heykəl Baba” (“Grandfather Monument”).
“My mother was taken to Baku Municipal Police Station. She is there at this very moment. They told me they will take my other relatives, as well. They came and took my mother yesterday to Sabunju Regional Police Station. They told her, ‘your son wrote a song, we cannot catch him, so we arrested you. They told her I had to take down my video from Youtube. Today, they came again and this time took her to Baku Municipal Police Station”.
Jamal Ali says he will not bend to the pressure. The rapper wrote on his personal Facebook page on January 6 towards 13:30:
“my mother and some other relatives are in Baku state police department now. the police is trying to pressure me to delete the latest music video track from youtube. i told them yesterday and today that i’m not going to delete anything until the reasons that create the content of the song are “deleted”.
i will not stop writing, singing, saying what i think.
if they want “changes”, let them do it first.
Ilham Aliyev, resign!
or f**k off! whichever you prefer!” (sic)
In his latest track, ”Heykəl Baba”, Jamal Ali urges the country leadership to stop the persecution of young activists and to stop violating freedom of expression rights in the country. The video already has around 11 thousand views on Youtube.
Meydan TV was unable to get a statement from the Ministry of Internal Affairs on this issue.
You can watch Jamal Ali’s new music video below:
