Ahsan Nuruzade – member of the Muslim Unity Movement Date of arrest: 26 October 2024 Charge: Article 206 (Illegal use of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, manufacture, purchase, storage, transport or dispatch not for the purpose of sale in the quantity necessary for personal consumption) of the AR Code of Administrative Misdemeanors.
On 29 October 2024, the Baku City Narimanov District Court sentenced Ahsan Nuruzade to 2 months of administrative detention.
He continued that, according to the Court's ruling, at the end of the arrest term, Ahsan Nuruzade should be sent for compulsory narcological treatment.
But the Court's verdict did not specify in which institution he should be treated.
On 6 November 2024, the Baku City Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Narimanov District Court without taking into account that after his imprisonment, Nuruzade had been seriously ill, his wife being ill with cancer passed away two years ago, leaving two daughters in his care.
Nuruzade was charged under the Administrative Offences Code, Article 206, which stipulates a fine of 300 to 400 manats ($180 to $240).
Conclusion: Ahsan Nuruzade, one of the leaders of the Muslim Unity Movement, has been repeatedly arrested.
In 2017, he was arrested and sentenced to 7 years in jail in 2018.
He was recognised as a political prisoner.
After completing his sentence, he was released on 5 October 2024, but continued to be interested in political issues of the country.
In particular, on his Facebook page he posted a poem by former political prisoner and Muslim Unity Movement member Elvin Muradov, who had recently been released from prison.
The written by the young poet poem expressed his protest against the tyranny of Azerbaijani power, and pointed out that suffering of religious in jail were not meaningless. 190 The Azerbaijani law enforcement authorities could not arrest E.Muradov, as he left the country and immediately emigrated after his release from detention.
Instead, they decided to prosecute A.
Nuruzade.
Nuruzade was detained by the men in civilian clothes as early as 26 October 2024.
In the evening of 26 October, 2024, i.e. 20 days after his release, four unknown individuals forcibly grabbed Ahsan Nuruzade, who was meeting his daughter returning from the university, and took him in an unknown direction.
For two days the Ministry of Internal Affairs officers denied the fact of arrest and assured his relatives and friends that they hadn't had any information about Ahsan Nuruzade.
Only on 28 October the police finally acknowledged the fact of detention of A.
Nuruzade.
According to Fakhraddin Mehdiyev, Nuruzade's lawyer, his client has categorically rejected the accusation of drug use and claimed that the conclusion of the narcological examination was falsified, "Nuruzade said that he had not used drugs, and the conclusion of the narcological expertise had been falsified.
He said to have a heart problem and no one would use drugs in such a condition.
We, on our part, submitted a medical report confirming that after his release from prison this month he had undergone a stenting procedure due to blockage of his heart vessels.
As a matter of fact, he was supposed to go for a second examination on 30 October”.
The lawyer also stated that Nuruzade believed that he was persecuted for his religious beliefs and intended to start a hunger strike as he could not tolerate the unjust punishment.
