558 cases of domestic violence recorded in Azerbaijan so far this year

A total of 558 acts of domestic violence were recorded in Azerbaijan during the first half of 2018. The State Committee on Statistics stated that this is 1.6 per cent less than the same period last year.

Around 89.8 per cent of all cases were registered as ‘deliberate infliction of insignificant damage to health’, meaning abuse without serious injury.

A further 4.8 per cent were far more serious, including premeditated or attempted murder.

Another 3.2 per cent fell under deliberate infliction of serious damage to health.

Around 0.2 per cent were cases of bringing a person to suicide.

Finally, 2 per cent were of other crimes that did not fall under any of these categories.

Only 7 per cent of these domestic abuse cases were committed while intoxicated.

Most of the victims were women at 77.7 per cent, while 1.4 per cent were children and adolescents.

Shortly before the statistics were published, Azerbaijani Facebook users (mainly civil activists and their circles) were actively discussing the case of journalist Anar Gerayli whose pregnant wife accused him of having beaten her in plain sight on one of the streets in Baku. She also apparently showed the resulting bruises and injuries. People who discussed and condemned Gerayli (mostly his acquaintances and colleagues) emphasized that such behavior might be expected from others, but not from a journalist positioning himself as a progressive person and who is seen as far from being patriarchal.