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In Nakhijevan three Muslims who read the works of the late Turkish theologian Said Nursi were held for weeks in jail without any court approval or warrant, foundation “Forum 18” reads.

Forum 18 news service received reports that the believers had been beaten and threats were made against their families to force them to "confess" to a "crime" they had nothing to do with. The men did so as a result of the tortures, and their "confessions" were filmed assumingly to be broadcast on TV.

According to the victims’ friends, in 2013 leaflets criticising Nakhijevan's rulers were thrown from a car window in central Nakhijevan city. Police officers were seeking "confessions" from people, who weren’t responsible for that incident. Yafez Akramoglu of Radio Free Europe – a Nakhijevan native who was deported in 2011 - told Forum 18 that police is under political pressure.

According to the article, two of the above-mentioned people were seized in Nakhijevan, and the third had been forcibly put on a flight to Nakhijevan from Baku, his family being unaware. Police have confiscated passports from all three. They don’t have a lawyer. "No lawyers in Nakhijevan would dare to defend them," one of their friends stressed.

Forum 18 tried to contact the Nakhijevani officials, yet they refused to answer the questions. One of the three men’s friends insists they were targeted because of their religious activity, and Nursis in Nakhijevan face such problems at minimum once a year.

Forum 18 also reports that another Nakhijevan-based Muslim associated with the other three, Chingiz Talibov, fled to neighboring Turkey in January. His friends say three plain-clothed policemen from Nakhijevan then tried to kidnap him in the street, however Turkish police witnessed the kidnap attempt and intervened. As a result, the Turkish authorities deported the police officers back to Azerbaijan. After the failed kidnapping, the Nakhijevan authorities stepped up pressure on Talibov's family, his friends reported.

Akramoglu also told Forum 18, that six of the 200 or so Muslims arrested in November 2014 are still in detention. He also noted that almost all the approximately 50 mosques forcibly closed in November 2014 have now reopened, yet under new leadership closer to the authorities. "The authorities feared many of them were too close to the Iranians," he noted adding that it was difficult to assess the validity of the state's accusations.

The Head of Nakhijevan's Department for Work with Religious Organizations Vuqar Babayev told Forum 18 that no non-Muslim places of worship operate in Nakhijevan, because there everyone is of the Muslim religion. He noted that Shia Muslims make up 95 per cent of the population and Sunni Muslims the rest. Yet, as far as only one of the 217 mosques is Sunni-dominated, the Sunni Muslims must go to Shia mosques.

Referring to its data, Forum 18 points out that there is a de facto ban on people exercising freedom of religion or belief who are Shia Muslims outside state control, as well as religious minorities. The restrictions on people's ability to exercise human rights, including freedom of religion or belief and other political and social freedoms are far tighter than in the rest of Azerbaijan.