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The leader of the Azerbaijani opposition movement REAL, Ilgar Mammadov, serving sentence in jail number 2, was severely beaten on 16 October, his lawyer Javad Javadov said, according to the agency Turan.

Javadov, the lawyer filed a complaint to the Justice Minister Fikrat Mammadov, prosecutor general Zakir Garalov and the country's ombudsman Elmira Suleymanova. He noted that immediately after his visit, Mammadov was summoned to the administrative building, where he was taken to the deputy prison chief, Shakir. Shakir and a warden, Chingiz, started to hit on Mammadov’s head.

Then they pushed him into the office of the prison chief, Eyvaz Askerov, knocked him down on the floor and started to kick him, all three of them. According to the lawyer’s evidence, Mammadov has traumas and bruises on his head and neck as a result of the beating. “The prison chief again threatened Mammadov that he will not leave the jail alive and healthy,” Turan reports.
In his complaint, the lawyer asks to immediately investigate Mammadov’s beating and ensure his safety.

Mammadov’s refusal to write a petition to pardon to Ilham Aliyev is considered to be the most possible reason for the beating, as the Azerbaijani authorities implement force to get it from Mammadov ignoring the international community’s demand to release him.

Ilgar Mammadov was arrested on 4 February 2013, on charges of inciting mass violence, after he travelled to report on street riots which had broken out in northwest Azerbaijan. Ilgar Mammadov was sentenced to seven years in prison by Sheki Court in Baku in March 2014. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in May 2014 that his arrest contravened the European Convention on Human Rights. The judgment became final on 13 October 2014, when the Strasbourg Court rejected the appeal from the government of Azerbaijan. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe demanded his release “without delay” on 4 December 2014. This request was ignored.

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Opposition leader facing pressure from Azerbaijani prison officials to sign confession requesting pardon from President 
Opposition leader facing pressure from Azerbaijani prison officials to sign confession requesting pardon from President