A taxi driver in Azerbaijan’s western city of Sumqayit succumbed to his wounds after setting himself on fire to protest alleged “misconduct” by local traffic police,
RFE/RL
reported.
Maqsad Suleymanov, 27, set himself ablaze on September 20. He poured gasoline on himself on January 20 street and was rushed to the hospital, where he died several hours later.
1News.az
reported that the victim was a refugee from the occupied Zangilan region.
The Sumqayit city prosecutor’s office and police department issued a joint statement saying that the reasons for the apparent suicide were unknown.
Authorities launched a criminal investigation into Suleymanov’s death (incitement to suicide), according to
Kavkaz Uzel
.
The self-immolation is the seventh in a string of self-immolations since the beginning of 2014. On August 13, a 36-year-old woman in Baku died after setting herself afire. On July 28, a refugee from the Agdam region torched himself but was rescued. In December 2013, a Nagorno-Karabakh war veteran set himself on fire to protest the severe poverty many veterans live in.
