Azernews.Az

BAKU – Cases of torture increased in Azerbaijan in 2010, a local rights group claims.

Elchin Behbudov, chairman of the Azerbaijan Committee Against Torture, told a press conference Monday that whereas the organization received 106 such claims from citizens in 2009, their number reached 169 last year.

Most of the complaints were filed in 2010 against the ministries of internal affairs, national security, justice, defense and transport, as well as the State Customs Committee.

"State bodies confine to saying that there are no such facts, despite our repeated appeals. But so many appeals cannot all be false."

According to Behbudov, 11 people died in detention last year. He said cases of their abuse or causing death were not ruled out.

Meanwhile, Ombudsperson Elmira Suleymanova has appealed to the Prosecutor-General and Interior Minister over the recent death of a Baku resident in a police precinct.

Media reports have claimed that Elvin Asgarov has been beaten to death by police officers. Asgarov and his friends had clashed with policemen outside a restaurant in Baku last Thursday. Asgarov reportedly stabbed one of the law enforcers, was further taken to a police precinct and suffered a brutal beating. He was hospitalized with injuries, but doctors could not save his life.

Ombudsperson Suleymanova has requested that the heads of law enforcement agencies thoroughly investigate the incident and bring the culprits to book.