E/CN.4/2000/9 page 16 Mingechevir police officers and held illegally in the home of one of them in the village of Khanabad in Yevlakh district until 14 December, when he was discovered and released by Kakh district police. On 16 January 1998, he was reportedly detained again and taken to the police department, where he was beaten. He was reportedly taken by his family to Agdash district where doctors found that he was suffering from torn abdominal muscles. It is further alleged that on 7 February 1998 the police tried to exert pressure on his classmates who had reportedly witnessed him being beaten at the police station. 51. Namik Aliyev, a lawyer, was allegedly assaulted on 12 March 1998 by officers at police station No. 26 in the Yasamisky district of Baku when visiting a client. He reportedly demanded that his client be given a medical examination when he noted a fresh bruise on his face. Two police officers allegedly beat him in the presence of his client and others. He was then reportedly placed in a cell and taken an hour later to a hospital to be tested for the presence of alcohol. He was reportedly released later that evening. A doctor who examined him after his release reportedly found contusions to his head and buttocks. The Baku City Procurator's Office reportedly instituted criminal proceedings for exceeding authority, as a result of the alleged beatings. 52. Elshan Javanshir oglu Rahimov, a former member of the special police force (OPON), was allegedly beaten in pre-trial detention in April 1998 before his trial began on 2 July 1998. He was allegedly beaten with truncheons, a parquet brick and a table leg at the Ministry of Interior's Department to Combat Organized Crime. When he lost consciousness as a result of the beatings, he was allegedly thrown under a cold shower until he revived and was later tied naked to a central heating radiator and tortured. An officer allegedly punched him in the face, knocking out three teeth. After he wrote protest letters to the procuracy, he allegedly received further beatings. As a result, he reportedly suffers from frequent fainting and deafness in one ear and had suffered a broken humerus. 53. Fagani Magerramov, Chairman of the Geranboy Branch of the Party of National Independence of Azerbaijan (PNIA), was reportedly severely beaten on 30 July 1998 by the Head of the Department to Combat Organized Crime at the Geranboy police administration. He was allegedly repeatedly beaten with a rubber truncheon in front of other police officers for several hours. He was reportedly released after the Ministry of the Interior intervened. The beatings are said to have occurred after press reports alleged that the local authorities were interfering in the collection of signatures for a PNIA presidential candidate. A medical examination of Magerramov was reportedly carried out and a criminal case in connection with the alleged beatings was opened by the Republican Procuracy. 54. Shokhrat Ismailov, party secretary of the Party of Democratic Independence, Mirvari Gakhramonova, also a party secretary and Chairwoman of the party's Women's Committee, and Professor Fikriyya Ibragimli, a member of the Supreme Council of the party, were allegedly physically assaulted by police officers from the Yasamalsky district on 15 August 1998 while walking to the site of an opposition party demonstration in Baku. 55. Ramil Ismailov, son of Shokhrat Ismailov (see above) and leader of the youth organization of the Party of Democratic Independence, was allegedly severely beaten on 15 August 1998 by seven or eight police officers using