New inquiry into torture of figurants in "Terter Case" encourages rights defenders

Azeri law enforcement bodies have announced a restart of criminal proceedings on complaints of torture of the Azerbaijani militaries suspected of treason. The head of the Baku Human Rights Club and the director of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) believe that not only the high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) should be punished, but also the revision of sentences rendered on the so-called "Terter case" should continue.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in 2017, a group of militaries and civilians was arrested in Baku on charges of cooperating with Armenian special services and plotting acts of sabotage against the Azerbaijani MoD. During the investigation, eight people were tortured to death; four of them were rehabilitated posthumously.

The Azerbaijani General Prosecutor's Office (GPO), the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the State Security Service (SSS) have admitted that some military servicemen from the army units stationed in the Terter, Agdam and Beilagan directions had exposed the suspects to "interrogation and inhuman treatment", which resulted in their death.

"The 'Terter case' became so resonant because of the savage torture that even the PACE deputies demanded to investigate these crimes," Emin Guseinov, the IRFS Director, has stated.

The investigation of the "Terter case" was conducted with gross violations, said Elshan Gasanov, the coordinator of the union "For the freedom of political prisoners". "People were interrogated without advocates; and they used sophisticated torture. The bodies were not handed over to families," he has noted.