It is reported that on January 24, Babek Isgandarov, the head of the Lankaran Penitentiary Complex, beat a female prisoner in his office.

This was later recounted by Ilkana Baghirova, a guard who had filed a complaint with the head of the facility against the female prisoner. After returning from the meeting, she told other prisoners about what had happened. According to her, those present in the meeting room were the head of the women’s unit, Zamin Aliyev, guard Ilkana Baghirova, and the prisoner.

According to her words, the head of the facility grabbed the female prisoner by the hair, dragged her along the floor, and kicked her in the rib area. The guard added that while beating the woman, the head also used language that humiliated and degraded her dignity.

Guard Ilkana Baghirova said that she and the head of the women’s unit, Zamin Aliyev, did not interfere during the violence committed by the head of the facility and observed the situation without saying a word.

The next day, the woman who allegedly had been beaten had bruises on her left leg and swelling in the rib area. Due to severe pain, she fainted and fell to the ground in the facility’s yard.

Although the injured woman wanted to be taken for a medical examination, this was not done. The mentioned female prisoner is still frequently being taken to the head’s office and is kept under pressure.

At the complex, not only female prisoners but also male ones are subjected to beatings. In the facility, which holds more than a thousand male inmates, the head of the regime department, Azer Bagirov, is reported to torture them.

The sounds of these acts of torture are heard by female inmates held in a nearby detention unit. They hear Azer Bagirov addressing the prisoner with the words “Get on your knees, you b…” and hear him kicking and slapping them.

One male prisoner who served part of his sentence in this prison told “Abzas Media” that prisoners there are beaten for a wide range of reasons. These include differences in clothing, the material of their clothes, answering back to a guard or the warden, demanding their rights, and similar pretexts.

According to him, if a prisoner is beaten by one person while being verbally humiliated and then talks back, five or six guards immediately join in and begin beating that person.

This male prisoner emphasizes that without an official marriage, having only a religious marriage, one prisoner wanted to meet his wife, and although initially he got permission, it was later withdrawn, and in objection to this the prisoner became angry. After that, he was beaten by several guards in the head’s office.

It is also reported that another prisoner was beaten for requesting additional time beyond the once-a-week phone call allowed in order to speak with a close relative who is ill.

At the moment of publication, it was impossible to receive a response regarding this issue from the authorities.

Clause 53 of the Internal Regulations of Penal Institutions states that prisoners must not be subjected to torture, cruel treatment, or treatment that degrades human dignity. However, it is impossible to determine how many of the male inmates who are summoned daily to the administrative building are subjected to torture in the head’s office.

The sounds of this violence, which take place in the head’s double-doored office, are absorbed by the soundproof walls. For this reason, we call on the Prosecutor’s Office and the Ombudsman to visit the complex and investigate the cases of torture happening there.

The Lankaran Penitentiary Complex was put into operation in December 2024. The women’s unit was opened on September 3, 2025. At present, 10 female detainees are being held in the investigative detention department and 13 female prisoners in the correctional facility. Overall, more than 1,000 male prisoners are serving their sentences at the complex.

The head of the complex, Babek Isgandarov, previously served as the head of Correctional Facility No. 12 in Baku. After the ceiling of that facility collapsed, killing one inmate, the 600 prisoners held there were transferred to the Lankaran Penitentiary Complex, where he was subsequently appointed to the same post.

Sevinj Vagifgizi

Elnara Gasimova

Nargiz Abasalamova