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The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense buries soldiers winding them with sticky tapes, and lies to families saying that the bodies are washed, wrapped up in shrouds and ready for burial, Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq reports citing a dead Azerbaijani soldier’s mother.

According to the information, on June 13, 2015, the Ibrahimovsfamily from Khimikov settlement, Sumgait,were informed at Gedabek military baseabout their son’s death. Two days later, the corpse wrapped in cellophane was sent to the parents, andthree days later, they received notice signed by the commander of the base, which read that the private soldier Faik Jabir OgluIbrahimov had hanged himself in a desolate place attached to the battalion of the territory.

The soldier’s family never agreed with this version because Faik, who had only three months left until the demobilization, could not commit suicide. According to his mother, a few days before the murder, her son had told her on the phone that he was extorted 850 manats for an allegedly lost detail of an assault rifle he had handed in working order after the duty.

“We demanded from the investigator to clarify this question during the investigation. He answered that he could not revive the dead and ask him about the detail,” the dead soldier’s mother said.
The Military Prosecutor’s Office of the Kazakh regionfiled a criminal case on Faik Ibragimov’s deathunder theArticle “driving a person to suicide” of the Criminal Code. As a result, another soldier of the same military base,HuseynHuseynov,was detainedand convicted to 10 years of imprisonment by Ganja Military court in April 2016.

According to the investigation, on May 26, HuseynHuseynov did not obey Faik Ibragimov’s order, who was on duty in the battalion. This led to a conflict. Huseynov beat Ibrahimov, whose hanged body was allegedly found later on.

HuseynHuseynovinsulted and put pressure on other soldiers, too, who testified against him in the court.

Faik Ibrahimov’s mother believes that mockery at the soldiers and cases ofmurder in military bases are the result of the existing arbitrariness caused by patronage and impunity. In her opinion, if that soldier had been punished on time for such behavior, another crime would not have happened, and her son would be alive.

However, the mother does not believe that her son committed suicide․ Shesayshe was killed by a fellow soldier or a group of them. She believes that if her son committed suicide, the members of the Prosecutor’s office, who arrived at the scene, must have photographed him. The circumstance that they were not allowed to open the coffin also raised the mother’s doubts. Opening the coffin, they discovered that the soldier’s body was wrappedwith sticky tape, and traces of torture were found on his neck and feet.

The newspaper informs that the family demands a second investigation being sure of intentional homicide.