Facebook activist sentenced to 5 years imprisonment

Baku/03.04.14/Turan : Baku Court of Grave Crimes chaired by Mahmoud Agalarov completed the trial of an active user of social networks on the Internet, 20-year-old Elsever Mursalli . The court found him guilty under article 234.4.3 ( illegal drug trade in a large size ) of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to five years' imprisonment . The young man rejected the accusation and said the criminal case against him was politically motivated .

Mursalli criticized the Azerbaijani authorities in the social network Facebook.

In addition, in the presidential election on October 9 , he actively participated in the campaign in support of the opposition presidential candidate from the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) Jamil Hasanli in the northern region of the country , spreading his propaganda materials.

Mursalli was arrested on October 3, 2013 in Khachmaz and brought to Baku to the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime of MIA.

However, his parents were promised speedy release of the young man, so they did not report about the situation.

Only recently in jail in Kurdakhani Mursalli told about what happened to him to the NIDA activists contained therein and expressed a desire to join the movement . "We gave him a questionnaire and he was accepted into the organization," a board member of NIDA, Ulvi Hasanli, told Turan.

At the hearing on the case of NIDA activists on April 1 accused Rashadat Akhundov told about the case of Mursalli to journalists and human rights activists, and urged them to bring the issue to transparency.

After this the trial of Mursalli was hastily completed and his verdict was read.

Note that the article 234.4.3 becomes typical for active users of social networks. Active Facebook users Abdul Abilov and Omar Mammadov were also arrested on this charge before. - 06B-