Police crack down on Azerbaijani businessmen's hunger strike

Police violently broke up a hunger strike organized by Azerbaijani businessmen who demanded that the Sumgait municipal authorities pay back the money they borrowed from them for landscaping the Sumgait Seaside Boulevard.

The 11 hunger strike participants were taken to the Baku-based Binagadin district police department and were released some time later. However, they have been banned from holding a hunger strike under threat of arrest.

The businessmen claim that the day before construction commenced at the city boulevard, the Sumgait municipal authorities had taken out a loan from them for landscaping the boulevard. An agreement was concluded with a private contractor rather than with the Mayor’s Office. The businessmen received a certain portion of the debt after the boulevard was opened, and were promised that they would receive the remaining AZN 4 million (about EUR 2 million) later. However, the businessmen never received the aforesaid sum, as the head of the contracting company Mugais Verdiyev declared bankruptcy and was convicted of fraud. The businessmen believe that the Sumgait municipal authorities should recover the debt, but the latter refuse and recommend that the businessmen appeal to the court.

“The executive government of the city of Sumgait is not a party to the contract with those who demand their money back. The only person responsible for settlement of those debts has been arrested,” the Turan news agency cited Eyvaz Orujov, a spokesperson for the Sumgait executive government, as saying.

Elchin Sadygov, the businessmen’s lawyer termed the police crackdown on the hunger strike participants as ‘illegal’.

“Nobody has a right to enter a citizen’s home without a court warrant. Intimidation of and exertion of pressure on the individuals involved in the hunger strike by the police should be regarded as an abuse of official powers. We will report the incident to the General Prosecutor’s Office, as well as to the relevant governmental agencies,” Sadygov told the xeberman.com website.