E/CN.4/2000/9 page 19 68. Taleh Hamid, editor of the newspaper Mustigil, was allegedly beaten on 1 September 1998 by police officers from the Khatainsky district of Baku, near the Goskomimushchestvo building around one and a half hours before a convoy carrying President Aliyev was due to pass. He was reportedly stopped as he was driving along this route by police who told him that the road was closed and suggested, allegedly in offensive and obscene terms, that he leave the road. When the journalist objected to their attitude, the captain of police station No. 35 in Khatainsky district allegedly struck him in the face and pulled him out of his car and continued to beat him on the street. Three officers from the same station allegedly joined in the beating. A forensic medical examination was reportedly carried out, the results of which were given to the procuracy, where the case was reportedly being investigated by a procuracy official of the Department of Police Supervision. 69. Sabukhi Gafarov was reportedly taken hold of by police officers on 7 May 1998. His camera was reportedly confiscated and he was allegedly hit several times with truncheons, after the police saw him taking pictures of police officers beating a group of women mourners assembled outside the Azhdarbey Mosque in Baku. Another journalist, Aygun Ismaylov, was also reportedly seized by police officers. Both are said to have been released immediately when the crowd intervened. They reportedly contacted the authorities about these alleged events and received a response from the Nasiminsky District Procuracy around a month later informing him that the beatings could not be confirmed. The Procuracy reportedly failed to summon either of the journalists, or a witness to the incident, to investigate the complaint. 70. Ilham Shaban, a journalist of the TURAN news agency, was allegedly beaten by police on 7 November 1998 near the office of the Azerbaijan newspaper where a demonstration was taking place. It is alleged that he showed his press card to a police major who allegedly ordered his subordinates to beat him. Follow-up to previously transmitted communications 71. By letter dated 11 December 1998 the Government replied to a number of previous communications sent by the Special Rapporteur on 23 September 1998, 20 June 1997 and 10 June 1996. 72. Concerning Samir Zulfugarov (see E/CN.4/1999/61, para. 60), the Government replied that he was arrested on 28 July 1997 by Yasamal district police station officers for possession of narcotics. He was held at the Yasamal district police station until 1 August 1997, instead of being transferred to the Baku Principal Police Station normally used for suspects under investigation. The Government replied that on 1 August 1997 he was taken to City Hospital No. 1 where he died three hours later. Criminal proceedings were initiated by the Procurator of Yasamal district of Baku City on 1 August 1997 and later entrusted to the Baku City Procurator's Office, under a number of provisions of the Criminal Code including intentional homicide. The file regarding one of the arresting police officers was later forwarded to the People's Court in Baku City for examination, however the Government replied that the case was subsequently halted as it was impossible to identify the persons responsible for his death. After the case was returned to the Procurator's office for further examination, the criminal proceedings against the police personnel and the proceedings concerning the death of Samir Zulfugarov were combined into one case on 25 July 1997. At the time of the government reply, the case was in the hands of the Baku Procurator's Office.