Our groups letters of concern helped release Jabbar Savalan of Azerbaijan.
Jabbar Savalan was a 20 year old student and member of the opposition Popular Front Party (PFP) in Azerbaijan.
On February 4, 2011, the day before his arrest, Jabbar Savalan posted on Facebook calling for protests against the government in Baku.
He was arrested the next evening without explanation in Sumgayit and later charged with possessing 0.74g of marijuana. Despite the blood test taken following his arrest, which showed that he had not used drugs, Jabbar Savalan was convicted and sent to prison for two and a half years on May 4, 2011.
Jabbar Salvan
Following his arrest, a series of protests against government corruption, organized using Facebook, were met with a wave of arrests and criminal charges.
Reports show that he was questioned without a lawyer for two days during which he was slapped and intimidated into signing a confession. His lawyer, Anar Gasimov was also threatened by the interrogating police after the trial
Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression and condemns his conviction on fabricated drug charges.
The Global Importune letter signing group began sending letters of concern on behalf of Jabar Savalan to officials in the government of Azerbaijan sometime around September 2011.
He was released on December 26, 2011.
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