Court of Appeal Keeps Tofig Yagublu under Arrest

Baku / 02.11.19 / Turan: On November 2, the Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) examined the complaint of Tofig Yagublu, a member of the coordinating center of the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) and activist of the Musavat party, about his administrative arrest for 30 days.

He was arrested on October 19 during a police crackdown on an opposition rally.

At the previous meeting of the court of appeal on October 29, the defense raised the issue of distorting the protocol of the proceedings in the court of first instance.

In particular, the statement of Tofig Yagublu in the trial court about torture of him by the police was not reflected in the protocol. However, the judge Babek Panahov himself, seeing the signs of torture, did not order an examination.

In this regard, the BCA returned the protocol to the Nasimi District Court to express the attitude of Judge Panahov to the defense's comments.

However, on November 2, at a meeting of the BCA, it became known that Judge Panahov did not agree with the defense's comments about the falsification of the protocol.

Attorney Neymat Karimli requested a medical examination in connection with traces of violence on Yagublu's body. Presiding Judge Aflatun Gasimov dismissed the motion.

Further at the trial, Yagublu himself spoke. He noted that on October 19 he was detained at 15.15 at the intersection of Samed Vurgun and Fizuli streets. And it was captured on numerous video and photo frames shot by journalists and distributed on the Internet.

Nevertheless, in the court of first instance the police testified that they detained Yagublu allegedly at the monument to Jafar Jabbarly.

According to the opposition member, after his arrest he was brought to the Nasimi District Police Department and handcuffed and beaten for an hour. “They demanded of me to abandon the political struggle, not to call people to protests and rallies and to say this on video. Of course, I refused to fulfill this illegal requirement and I was arrested for 30 days,” continued Yagublu.

He said he did not break the law, but on the contrary, there were criminal acts against him.

Yagublu said that he had already written a complaint of torture to the prosecutor’s office, and is demanding that the court punish those who beat him.

Yagublu drew attention to the fact that the Baku executive power violated the law by not coordinating the rally in the places proposed by the NCDF.

He recalled that article 49 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of assembly, and this rule has direct effect. Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights also guarantees freedom of assembly.

However, the judiciary upheld the decision to arrest Yagublu for 30 days unchanged.

Yagublu’s daughter Nigar Hazi said the arrest and torture of the opposition member will be appealed to the ECHR.  —06D-