The Baku Serious Crimes Court sentenced activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) Elbai Karimli to 6 years in prison.
He was found guilty of drug trafficking on a large scale.
The verdict will be appealed, the activist’s lawyer Neymat Karimli told Turan.
“In court, Elbai Karimli said that he rejected the accusation, it was fabricated for political reasons. Elbai Karimli said that the real reason for his arrest was his writing of the word “Stalin” on the monument to Heydar Aliyev last August. After this he was immediately detained. At the 22nd Nasimi police station, he was forced to give a “confession” under torture,” the lawyer said.
It was not possible to obtain comments on Karimli’s case from law enforcement agencies.
Politics
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The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OPHRD), a joint program of the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has called for the urgent release of activist Rufat Safarov from prison in Azerbaijan. It has launched a campaign in support of the Azerbaijani human rights defender. https://www.omct.org/en/resources/urgent-interventions/arbitrary-detention-and-judicial-harassment-against-rufat-safarov
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This year, the laureate of the annual Nargiz Prize, awarded for efforts in the fight for democracy, was Akif Gurbanov, chairman of the board of the Resplatforma (Platform of the III Republic) movement, who is under arrest.
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The U.S. will prohibit the issuing of visas for nearly a dozen more individuals responsible for undermining democracy in Georgia, bringing the total number to over 100, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
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The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has expressed condolences to the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, following the tragic incident in the city of Magdeburg. "We are deeply shocked by the news of the deaths and injuries resulting from the tragic incident that took place at the Christmas market in Magdeburg," the message reads.
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