Man refuses to pay bribe, sent to mental asylum

Mahammad Gurbanov, 56, works as a vendor and says he was asked on September 12 to pay extra customs on goods he had imported from Turkey

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

By RFE/RL

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A couple in Azerbaijan claim the husband was coerced into checking into a psychiatric hospital in the western exclave of Naxcivan for refusing to pay a bribe.

Mahammad Gurbanov, 56, works as a vendor and says he was asked on September 12 to pay extra customs on goods he had imported from Turkey.

When he refused, his wife said, he was taken to an Internal Affairs Ministry office for questioning and his goods were destroyed.

Gurbanov said through an open hospital window that he was forced to write a "request to be treated at the mental hospital."

The case is the third in Azerbaijan in the past two years in which an individual claimed to have been taken to a psychiatric clinic by police after refusing to pay a bribe.

Copyright (c) RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

Filed under crime, human rights, azerbaijan

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