Court Considers Appeal of Mehman Huseynov

Baku / 10.10.18 / Turan: The Baku Court of Appeal chaired by Elman Shamayev held a preliminary meeting today on the complaint of blogger Mehman Huseynov about the refusal of conditional release.

The blogger himself participated in the meeting. The activists applauded the court and greeted them.

The lawyer, Shahla Gumbatova, petitioned for an employee of the prison, who gave a negative description of Huseynov, to be summoned to the court. However, the court did not grant the petition, having scheduled the hearing on the merits at 4:00 pm on October 17.

After the meeting, the lawyer told reporters that Huseynov complained of psychological pressure. In particular, he is not allowed to make phone calls. In addition, Huseynov is explained that he can be punished for explaining his rights to other prisoners.

Recall that on August 24, the Garadagh district court refused to grant release to Mehman Huseynov due to the passing of more than half of the sentence.

* Blogger Mehman Huseynov was sentenced in March 2017 to 2 years in prison on defamation charges in connection with a lawsuit against him by Musa Musayev, the head of the Nasimi district police department of Baku. The reason for filing the lawsuit was Huseynov"s allegations of torture at the said institution in January last year.

However, according to human rights activists, the true cause of the persecution of Huseynov was his video reports about the luxury villas of members of the Azerbaijani government and parliament.

Amnesty International recognizes Huseynov as a "prisoner of conscience." -03C06-