Samir Babayev - member of the Muslim Unity Movement Date of arrest: 6 March 2026 Charge: Article 234.4.3 (Illegal manufacturing, purchase, storage, transportation, transfer or selling of narcotics, psychotropic substances committed in large amount) of the Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan Republic. On 7 March 2026, the Baku City Sabunchu District Court satisfied the investigation's submission and imposed a preventive measure in the form of deprivation of liberty against Samir Babayev for the period of 4 months during the preliminary investigation. Place of detention: Pre-trial Detention Center № 1 at the Kyurdakhani settlement in Baku City Sabunchu District 208 Conclusion: 44-year-old MUM member, Samir Babayev, was arrested in 2022, subjected to brutal torture, and in October 2023, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. His sentence was later reduced to three years, but for the last 1.5 years, under a new court ruling, he served his term in the closed Gobustan Prison. He was released on 2 December 2025. However, he remained free only briefly — for just three months. On the morning of 6 March 2026, while on his way to work, he was detained by the officers of the Baku Sabunchu District Police Department. Babayev’s relatives described his detention as follows: “He was abducted by individuals in civil clothes, who approached in two vehicles forcibly taking him away. His family was not informed, did not know where he had been taken, what was their purpose, or who was in the vehicle. Only two days later, it became known that he had been arrested on charges of drug possession and had already been transferred to the pre-trial detention facility in Kyurdakhani.” According to his relatives, during a meeting with family members, S. Babayev stated that he had been forcibly administered narcotic substances and subjected to torture in order to compel him to admit a crime he had not committed. He reported that he had been beaten immediately after his detention in the vehicle, “I was abducted on my way to work by Baku City Sabunchu District Police officers. While I was in the car, they beat and strangled me. I was taken to the Police Station No. 14, where an officer by the name Suleyman Abbasov demanded me to confess of being a drug user. I refused to do it. Then, they began beating me and administered narcotic substances to me. They wanted to force me to sign a blank sheet of paper. Then, I was taken to the temporary detention facility of the Baku City Sabunchu District Police.” Samir Babayev further told his family, “The police did not allow my lawyer to be at the trial, so in protest I turned my back to the judge. After the pronounced verdict the police took me out and brought to the sanitary unit, closed the door and began beating me. They went so far as trying to push my head into the toilet. I said that I would report it, and only then they did stop.”