Azerbaijani activist Mustafayev complained of beatings in prison.
Trade union activist Elvin Mustafayev reported being beaten in a prison colony after his request for parole was denied.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," a Baku court partially granted the request of the prison administration and ordered Elvin Mustafayev to be sent to a closed prison for six months. The activist stated in court that he was framed in order to achieve a harsher sentence.
Elvin Mustafayev, an activist with the alternative trade union confederation "Workers' Platform," was detained in Azerbaijan on August 4, 2023, and charged with drug trafficking. The activist denied the charges, claiming that the drugs were planted on him by security forces. The court sentenced Mustafayev to three years in prison, and the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan upheld the sentence. Human rights activists recognized Mustafayev as a political prisoner, along with other arrested members of the same organization, Afiyaddin Mammadov and Aykhan Israfilov.
Trade union activist Elvin Mustafayev was subjected to physical pressure in correctional facility No. 17. The incident took place on the morning of May 9, the activist's father, Ali Mustafayev, told a Caucasian Knot correspondent. According to him, Elvin Mustafayev wanted to file a complaint from the colony, but the facility's management did not allow him to do so, leading to a dispute between him and the staff.
“Elvin was supposed to be transferred to a pretrial detention facility in connection with his appeal to the appellate court for parole. Under this pretext, Elvin was required to shave his beard. When he pointed out the illegality of this demand, several colony employees beat their son, punching and kicking him. Furthermore, they then forcibly shaved Elvin, holding his arms down,” the activist's father said.
“On May 12, when Elvin tried to tell us about the beatings in the colony by phone from the pretrial detention facility, the line was cut off. The pretrial detention facility's management ignored Elvin's protests regarding the interruption of the phone call. We only learned of Elvin's experience when his appeal was being heard in court. We don't know if it was recorded.” Elvin's injuries were reported in the pretrial detention center. He suffers from a spinal protrusion, and the pain worsened after the beating. The blows left him unable to turn his head for several days, and he still has bruises on his arms," said Ali Mustafayev.
On May 6, Mustafayev was placed in solitary confinement for going on a hunger strike in solidarity with opposition politician Tofig Yagublu, who was then on hunger strike. From that day on, Mustafayev was banned from phone calls and visits with his family. After his hunger strike, he was transferred to Penal Colony No. 6. After Yagublu ended his hunger strike, Mustafayev also ended his protest.
However, the activist's request for parole was denied. "The day before, on May 21, the Baku Court of Appeals denied Elvin's request to change the remainder of his prison sentence to a suspended sentence, even though he only had about three months left on his sentence. When Elvin complained of violence, the judge stated that 'the court does not consider such issues,'" the activist's father noted.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," at the end of December 2025, opposition activist Lachin Veliyev also complained of violence in Colony No. 17, and a year earlier, Bakhtiyar Babashov, a member of the Muslim Unity movement, did the same.