Sexual harassment and brutality reported at Azerbaijan protest
Detainees from the protest held near the “28 May” metro station, organized under the slogan “Justice for Elgün Ibragimov”, say they were subjected to harassment and threats at the Nasimi District Police Department in Baku.
Elgün Ibragimov was a 17-year-old schoolboy who died under mysterious circumstances. He was found in critical condition in an abandoned dormitory in Ganja and later died in hospital. Pro-government media circulated a version of events suggesting he had taken his own life. However, his family insists he did not commit suicide but was beaten to death..
An official statement claimed that Elgün Ibragimov died from injuries sustained in a fall from height.
A protest under the slogan “Justice for Elgün Ibragimov” was scheduled to take place in the city centre on 1 June.
“One of the police officers sexually harassed us”
“At exactly 12:00, my friend and I arrived at the place where the protest was supposed to take place, but there was no one there. Three men in plain clothes approached us, identified themselves as police officers, and demanded we show them the posters we were holding. When we refused, they grabbed our arms roughly and forcibly snatched the posters from us,” one of the protest participants told JAMnews in an interview.
The young woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said the police forced them into a vehicle and took them to the Nasimi District Police Department. For about six hours, officers tried to convince the detainees that Elgün’s death had been a suicide.
According to her, there was an excessive number of officers present at the station. Some of them behaved aggressively and threatened the young people, saying they would “walk all over them like a carpet.” She interpreted one of the officer’s comments as sexual harassment:
“One of the girls said: ‘They’re pushing into our ranks, let me stand in front.’ To which the officer replied: ‘I’ll get in front of you, don’t worry.’”
The protester learned the number of detainees when one officer told another: “There are 63 people in the assembly hall.” However, more people were brought in later.
“There were around 15 girls. Most of the participants were university students. I also saw boys who looked about 16. The police shouted at them: ‘Stop acting like girls.’ The kids were terrified and came to us for protection because we could stand up for ourselves.”
She added that some participants felt unwell, but their condition was ignored. After around six hours in custody, the police demanded phone passwords and accessed their TikTok, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts. The detainees were then driven away and dropped off near a metro station. The minors had to wait for their parents to collect them.
Explaining why she took part in the protest, the young woman said:
“Elgün was underage, younger than me. Every time I see a video of him, I feel like I’m falling apart. How can anyone be so heartless as to kill a teenager who was preparing for graduation? Why hasn’t the killer been found? How can they so easily close the case as a suicide? They’re killing us, and we stay silent and can’t move forward. I went to the protest for the youth, for the future, for ourselves—to protect underage children. I don’t regret it. I’ll say just one thing: if it happened again, I would go again.”
“Got out of hand, have you? Who do you think you are to stage a protest?”
One of the detainees was a young man who told JAMnews he hadn’t brought a placard but came to the protest site simply to observe. He sat on a bench near the 28 May metro station and waited. When the protest hadn’t begun by shortly after 12, he was about to leave but ran into a friend.
“My friend came for the protest. We greeted each other and started talking when two plainclothes officers approached us and demanded our phones. At first, we didn’t want to hand them over, but to avoid trouble, we did. They asked us to enter our passwords, and then they put us and another person into an unmarked vehicle and took us to the Nasimi District Police Department. That other detainee told us he was having a panic attack and struggling to breathe at the time.”
The young man noted that once at the police station, their bags and student ID cards were confiscated and they were treated roughly.
“First, in one room they took down our information—name, surname, phone number, and address. In another, they took our fingerprints. They were just as rough as you’d expect. They didn’t hold back with the insults. When I reached into my wallet for my ID, one of the officers shouted, ‘Don’t you have ID, idiot?’ As for the protest, they shouted: ‘Got out of hand, have you? Who do you think you are to stage a protest?’”
What shocked him most was a conversation between a police officer and one of the detained women. She asked them: “Where were you when I was being verbally harassed in the street?” A crowd of officers gathered, and an argument broke out. One of them blamed the woman for how she dressed, saying: “Why do things happen to you and not to other girls?”
The interviewee said he was held for around six hours and estimated the total number of detainees to be between 60 and 70 people. Among them were minors, including a 13-year-old child:
“I saw that child at the protest site before the arrests. He was wearing a mask. I found out his age later at the station—he was 13. Another boy said he was 16 but looked no older than 10. They let me go at 18:25. Others were released before and after me, though some remained inside. They took everyone’s phones and checked them one by one.”
Context
For some time now, various accusations have been circulating on social media alleging that the Prosecutor’s Office is failing to conduct a serious investigation into the death of Elgün Ibragimov. In addition, a number of activists have been distributing leaflets with information about Elgün’s case in different districts and handing them out on the streets. As a result, civil activist Nidjat Emiraslanov was detained and sentenced to 15 days of administrative arrest.
Among the circulating theories about Elgün’s death is the suggestion that he was murdered by the police.
