Azerbaijani blogger and asylum seeker Huseyn Bakikhanov committed suicide at Stamba hotel in Tbilisi, hotel lawyer says OC Media.

According to Kakha Tsereteli, lawyer for the hotel, the incident happened around 1:00 p.m. on July 14 after Bakikhanov successfully passed an interview for a job at the hotel.

News of Bakikhanov’s death did not emerge until July 29 after Azerbaijani dissidents Avtandil Mammadov and Afgan Mukhtarli spoke about it. on social networks. They speculated that he may have been assassinated by the Azerbaijani government.

Tsereteli said a human resources official was taking Bakikhanov and other new employees on a tour of the hotel when they noticed he was no longer with the group.

‘They called him, asked him where he was, at what [Hussein] replied that he was on the roof of the building in the inner courtyard of Stamba, ‘he said.

“The hotel’s human resources manager and two security guards went up to the roof, and when [Hussein] saw them, it was unfortunate, he jumped off the roof of the building in front of them.

“He was alone on the roof. When the hotel staff saw him, he said nothing, put his things on the ground and jumped.

Tsereteli added that to their knowledge he had not had any conflicts with hotel staff or anyone else at the hotel during the day.

Tsereteli said there were CCTV footage of the incident that had been turned over to the Interior Ministry.

A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry said OC Media that they had opened an investigation into his death.

Bakikhanov, who blogs primarily about Islam, came to Georgia several months ago. In interviews with Azerbaijani media, he said he did so because he believed his life was in danger after he and other bloggers staged a protest in Baku on May 7.

The protest in central Baku called for the issuance of additional social payments due to the coronavirus pandemic and accompanying lockdown measures. Bakikhanov was arrested by police during the demonstration.

In an interview with Obyektiv TV after the demonstration, he said the police took him in a car and tortured him.

On July 12, Bakhikhanov shared a video on his YouTube given the back of an ambulance claiming that he had been beaten up by a group of Azerbaijanis in Tbilisi. He speculated that the attack may have been politically motivated.