Another PFPA Activist Interrogated (UPDATED)

Sagif Gurbanov, head of the PFPA department, was interrogated for three hours in the Investigatory Directorate for Serious Crimes of the Prosecutor General's Office on Thursday. The opposition activist was accompanied by his legal representative Namizad Safarov.

 As Safarov informed Turan IA, Gurbanov was interrogated as a witness in the criminal case initiated under Article 320 of the Criminal Code "Forging, manufacturing or selling official documents, state awards, seals, stamps, or forms or use of forged documents." It was started on the basis of some reports from the Internet allegedly about the receipt by citizens of Azerbaijan of asylum in Europe on forged documents.

Safarov questioned the legitimacy of the investigation. According to him, a criminal case starts on the basis of a complaint about illegal actions against the person. In this case, there is nothing like this. "At least, we do not know about this. As far as we understand, several pages of text were printed from the Internet and on the basis of this a criminal case started. It became known that the criminal case was initiated at the end of last year," Safarov said. --0---

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2017 April 20 (Thursday) 15:57:35

Interrogation of deputy PFPA in the prosecutor’s office lasted more than five hours

Baku / 20.04.17 / Turan: Deputy Chairman of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan Gezel Bayramli was interrogated for more than five hours in the Investigation Department of Serious Crimes of the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan.  She went into the office alone without lawyer. In a conversation with a Turan correspondent, Bayramli said: "The agenda of the prosecutor's office says that I was summoned in the case of forged information from the PFPA, allegedly issued by those wishing to receive political asylum abroad.

This accusation is slander and another attempt to pressure the PFPA. Our party has never issued fake certificates to anyone. I expect everything from our authorities and even arrest, but that does not frighten me. Many of our party members have been arrested. I'm no better than thee," Bayramly said.

After leaving the office, Bayramli also reported that a lawsuit has been filed, and she was brought to him as a witness: "They showed me forged certificates, asked about the identity of those to whom they were issued. In addition, I took a sample signature. I believe that this case is absolutely falsified.

Recently, the representative of the ruling party, Siyavush Novruzov, accused Ali Kerimli of corruption and asked for an investigation. Obviously, the criminal case is connected with this. I stated that we ourselves are interested in investigating the case of counterfeit certificates, so that this is not connected with our party. We agreed to cooperate on this issue. There was no pressure against me, they said that they would call again if there was a need," Bayramly added. -0-