Torture Once Again....

Jailed Azerbaijani activist Leyla Yunus has written a letter describing being harrassed by a group of young men who entered her Baku cell without explanation.

Here is the text of her letter:

"Torture once again....

"On November 25th, close to 5:30 p.m., when the sky had already gotten dark, I was dozing on my bench in the cell. Suddenly the cell door opened with a terrible thud and several men quickly walked in. I don't remember exactly how many there were. They were all young, dressed in civilian clothes and winter coats. I was terrified -- the events of September 23 flashed in front of my eyes, the day when some men entered this very same cell and pushed me out to a separate room where I was beaten by Major Yagubov.

"I have severe headaches every day from those blows to the head on September 23 and I can't walk, I sleep without a warm scarf over my head...

"And these young men who had entered the room somehow spread themselves around the cell, and one of them, in a black overcoat, walked up to my bench. He smiled in a very vile way and gestured toward me with his lips and his hands, a gesture that men make towards prostitutes.

"I was trembling and I screamed, "Who are you?" He smiled even more vilely and looked around at the other men, then moved even closer to me. And I became hysterical -- I screamed wildly, never in my life have I screamed so hysterically. I screamed, "Get out! I won't give in! Bastards! Vermin! Animals! ...

"I was just convulsed with hysterics. They stepped away to talk about something and then they left the cell. I remained in hysterics. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't calm down.

Where do they raise men like this, who receive pleasure from mocking and humiliating the sick and elderly...

The next morning uniformed detention workers came into the cell. I got very frightened all over again. I didn't understand when they were saying, I just cried. They left. Then in the afternoon they came again and said that I was being reprimanded for insulting medical doctors (??!!)

Physically, I am completely destroyed.

Their goal is to continue the mockery and humiliation and to completely destroy me psychologically.

-- Leyla Yunus