Russian national of Armenian descent Marat Ueldanov, who was convicted in Azerbaijan, fears that he is hindered from appealing the court judgment.
His sister, Mariana Mirzoyan, told Armenian News – NEWS.am that Marat called her on Wednesday and informed that he was moved to a terrible place at 12:00 pm on Friday.
“Today Marat also called the Russian Embassy in Baku and informed about this to Head of the Consular Department Dmitrieva Olga Yurievna. The attorney doesn’t visit him. Marat is afraid that everything is being done for him not to manage to appeal. He doesn’t know who to appeal to and in which form. Now Marat is alone in the cell. On the day Marat was moved to another place, he was in a mass cell, where there were 11 people and 8 beds. He spent several days without sleep. In the pretrial detention facility of the Service of National Security, Marat was forced to sign documents verifying that he has no claims on them. Marat refused to do that, following which he was beaten up. Then he was also hit in his back in the car. Now Marat is sick: he has fever and sore throat. Besides, his stomach ulcer has exacerbated,” Mirzoyan said.
Marat Ueldanov-Galustyan is the worker of Austrian catering company Do&Co. He was in on a business trip in Baku within the framework of Formula 1 racing. However, Ueldanov-Galustyan didn’t get in touch upon arriving there.
He is charged with illegal preparation, production, acquisition, keeping, transporting, import or sale of large amounts of narcotic or psychotropic substances or precursors
According to Russian media outlets, the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan proposed the relatives of the arrestee to treat with understanding the peculiarities of that country, where “the Armenian descent makes it extremely difficult to defend him.”
The charge on drug trafficking is used by Azerbaijan in respect of political prisoners or personae non grata.
