Сourt leaves three defendants in "Abzas Media case" under arrest

On May 9, the Khatai district court of Baku, chaired by Fuad Akhundov, separately considered petitions for transfer to house arrest as follows: director of "Abzas Media" Ulvi Hasanli, editor-in-chief of this publication Sevinj Vagifgizy and head of the online platform "Meclis.info" Imran Aliyev.

The court did not satisfy the petition, leaving the journalists under arrest.

According to the lawyers of the arrested, there are no material or procedural grounds for detaining journalists, and they were arrested for political reasons.

The court's decisions will be appealed to the court of appeal.

* In November 2023 – January 2024, eight journalists and media workers associated with Abzas Media were arrested.

In April, the head of meclis.info Imran Aliyev and the head of the Center for Election Monitoring and Democracy Education Anar Mammadli were arrested in this case.

All the defendants in the case were charged with "smuggling of foreign currency by prior agreement." The journalists deny the charges linking the criminal case to corruption investigations. Aliyev and Mammadli declared their non-involvement in the activities of "Abzas Media" at all. Human rights activists recognized those arrested as political prisoners.