Epress.am News from Armenia
Prominent lawyer, human rights activist and head of the Baku-based Legal Education Society NGO Intigam Aliyev was detained at Istanbul airport early Wednesday morning.
At passport control, a Turkish official, after stamping Aliyev’s passport, reportedly carelessly tossed it on the table and shouted at the activist to grab it as quickly as possible.
According to Contact.az, Aliyev called on the officials to be more polite. After that, they got into a dispute. Police who arrived on the scene began to pressure Aliyev and allegedly beat him. At this point, the human rights activist asked to meet with the airport police chief, but the latter also behaved rudely.
Later, Aliyev was taken to a private room at the airport’s underground level where he was also abused and kept for 4 hours, not being allowed to meet with a lawyer or file a complaint.
Aliyev was informed that he would be deported and criminal proceedings on charges of insulting police would be launched. Deportation would mean that he would not be able to visit Turkey for several years. The human rights activist said he is indebted to intervention by international organizations such as Freedom House for his eventual release.
“The police were pressuring me not to complain. One of them threatened me, saying, ‘If you don’t remain silent, you’ll be in big trouble’,” Aliyev said.
His lawyer has said that a complaint will be filed with the Turkish courts.
Intigam Aliyev was returning from Vilnius, where he participated in the Civil Society Parallel Event organized by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Note, the Human Rights House Foundation reported that in the incident with the customs official, Aliyev was refused his passport, and for allegedly insulting the officer, he was detained for more than 24 hours during which time he was beaten twice. He was subsequently deported from Turkey and arrived to Baku early on Thursday morning.