Azerbaijani theologian and religious activist
Haji Taleh Baghirzade
was reportedly attacked by the Baku Yasamal police on November 3,
Turan
reported.
Baghirzade was summoned to the police station on November 3 in connection with reports about a public gathering allegedly organized by Bagirzade, he wrote on his Facebook page. The scholar explained to the police that he was planning to take a group of people to visit the grave of national hero Mubariz Akhmedov at their request. Baghirzade reiterated that he was not planning to stage a rally.
The theologian subsequently asked the head of the district police, Isfendiyar Mehbaliyev, to let him perform a prayer. Mehbaliyev declined the request, but Bagirzade pressed on and started praying. The district police chief then allegedly assaulted Baghirzade, who sustained injuries to his face and jaw.
Baghirzade told Turan that he was planning to sue Mehbaliyev.
“His father was the cause of death of the veteran of the Karabakh war, and was not punished. This is the same level of his son,” the religious scholar said about the Yasamal police chief, referring to the actions of the Trade Union Confederation Chairman
Sattar Mehbaliyev
, accused of causing a war veteran to torch himself in December 2013.
Baghirzade is a known religious activist and scholar in Azerbaijan who was imprisoned twice. In fall 2013, he was jailed on charges of drug possession, commonly used by the authorities in politically motivated trials. On March 24, 2013, Baghirzade delivered a sermon accusing the government of Ilham Aliyev of corruption and describing the president as a
zalim
(despot). A week later, he was detained by the police for drug possession.
Hundreds staged protests against his arrest in April 2013. Earlier, Baghirzade had been imprisoned for 1.5 years over a protest action in front of the Ministry of Education regarding the wearing of hijabs in public schools.
