Released Azeri pressure group member set to continue anti-Armenian protests
ANS TV, Baku
22 Sep 04
[Presenter] The first deputy head of the Karabakh Liberation
Organization [KLO], the first group disabled, Firudin Mammadov, is now
the guest at “Xabarci” [news programme]. [Mammadov was arrested along
with other five members of the organization for protests against
Armenian presence at a NATO conference in Baku.] We are over to the
conference hall of ANS to speak to him. Good evening, Firudin bay
[form of address]. I congratulate you on your being set free.
[Firudin Mammadov from the conference hall] Good evening. Thank you. I
am very pleased.
[Presenter] Firudin bay, did you expect to be released today?
[Mammadov] Yes, we almost expected this. Because the public protest
against our arrest, including the attitude of the state leadership,
allowed us to think so.
[Presenter] Firudin bay, your health caused concern in the first
place. How did they treat you in prison?
[Mammadov] Taking this opportunity, first I want to thank all the
Azerbaijani public, elders, our respected sheikh [Allahsukur
Pasazada], MPs, the union of writers, as well as the mass media, who
supported us. The KLO expresses its satisfaction that they gave their
special support, aired the Azerbaijani people’s will and achieved our
freedom. As for the attitude towards us in prison, let me note that
all employees of the prison, including the inmates, irrespective of
the crimes they had committed, respected us highly. We thank all of
them. They appreciated our deeds more than judge Famil Nasibov and
the prosecutors.
[Passage omitted: the prison’s doctors, leadership did their best to
tackle his health problems]
[Presenter] My last question. Will your imprisonment have an impact on
your next protest actions? Will you be more careful in the future?
[Mammadov] I have been fighting for Azerbaijani lands since I was 18
or 19. I have not retreated a step from this fight over the past 15-16
years. Let me recall that I have lost one of the most valuable gifts
in the world – my sight – during this struggle. Even this fact has not
stopped me. You can assess now how difficult it is for me to serve
one-year suspended sentence. I think that the KLO and I, as a KLO
member, will do our best through public protests, and I can also
participate as a serviceman and a war veteran in a war if the state
leadership wages one. Undoubtedly, I will observe the law to some
extent. But the suspended sentence cannot stop me.
[Presenter] Thank you. I again congratulate you on your freedom.