Leader of the Azerbaijani "Muslim Unity" movement tells details of his disappearance

Elchin Gasymov, the leader of the Azerbaijani "Muslim Unity" movement, denies the information of his colleagues about his detention. He said that he was at home and explained the impossibility to contact him by disconnection of the phone.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 5, Gasymov stopped contacting after leaving a suburb of Baku for the planned speech on air of the oppositional TV channel.

Rufat Safarov, a rights defender, has explained that he had received information about Gasymov's detention from sources in the "Muslim Unity".

"I couldn't ignore this message ... Moreover, Gasymov had earlier been sentenced to a long term and announced to be a political prisoner. After his release, he was also summoned to the police more than once," said Mr Safarov.

On December 28, 2017, Gasymov was sentenced to 15 years in prison for participating in the events of November 2015 in Nardaran. In March 2019, he and several other convicts were pardoned by the President of Azerbaijan.