Social activist and disabled man on hunger strike in pretrial detention center

Famil Khalilov, a social activist and a first-degree disabled individual, has been on a hunger strike for eight days while in pretrial detention.

Khalilov, who was arrested four months ago on drug charges, had been criticizing the government on social media and considers himself an activist. His wife, Kichickhanim Khalilova, recently visited him at the Baku Pretrial Detention Center and reported that his condition has severely deteriorated.

Khalilov, paralyzed in both arms, initiated the hunger strike to protest his imprisonment. His wife revealed that, due to his disability, he struggles to move and fulfill basic needs without assistance. Previously, other inmates in his cell helped him, but they have since withdrawn their support for unknown reasons, leaving Khalilov to reduce his water intake during the strike.

Born in 1990, Khalilov is currently held in the Baku Pretrial Detention Center. Reports suggest that the detention center’s administration is pressuring him and his family to end the hunger strike. Allegedly, his mother and wife were asked to submit a petition to halt the strike, but they refused. “If Famil is still starving, how can we say he has stopped? We cannot lie if the hunger strike continues,” his wife stated.

Efforts to obtain a response from the Penitentiary Service regarding these allegations have been unsuccessful.

Khalilov was arrested on May 2, shortly after being deported to Azerbaijan following a failed asylum attempt in Sweden. His case is set to be heard by the Baku Court of Serious Crimes, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for August 29. Khalilov faces charges under Article 234.4.3 of the Criminal Code, which could result in a prison sentence of 5 to 12 years.

Kichickhanim Khalilova has dismissed the drug charges as fabricated, asserting that her husband’s arrest was motivated by his critical social media posts, where he demanded respect for human rights and freedoms from the government and President Ilham Aliyev. She recounted the day of his arrest, stating that over 10 police officers forcibly removed Khalilov from their rented home in the Sulutepe settlement. “Famil is completely reliant on me for everything. They falsely claim to have found drugs in our home. If they were truly there for drugs, they wouldn’t have taken the computer,” she explained.