Why are terms of pretrial detention of political activists prolonged?

Political prisoner, professor of economics Gubad Ibadoglu has been held in the detention centre since 23 July 2023. During this time, his detention has been prolonged twice. Galib Togrul, the brother of the detainee, told Turan that no investigation is being conducted and the seriously ill economist is being detained without grounds.

The situation is the same with the detention of journalists from "Abzas Media", "Toplum TV" and other media, whose detention and investigation are politically motivated. The detention terms are prolonged, the investigation is not conducted or the process is sluggish. Dozens of people whose guilt has not been proven sit in detention.

Speaking to "Turan", lawyer Namizad Safarov called the agency's question about the possibility of turning the detention centre into a prison for punishing the innocent as timely and relevant.  Otherwise, how else can one explain the fact that in the absence of investigative actions, the terms of imprisonment "for the period of action" are repeatedly extended despite the serious illnesses of those under investigation?

"The law requires that the investigation be conducted quickly, to fit within the first term of imprisonment - 2-4 months. The prolongation of the term of imprisonment is allowed if there are good reasons for it.  The law means that before detaining the accused, the investigators have collected enough evidence to prove his guilt. Otherwise, a citizen cannot be deprived of liberty.

In Azerbaijan, however, investigators and prosecutors are racking their brains day and night to extend and extend again the period of detention in the investigative isolator. Having no proof of the invented guilt, they force the accused by various methods to admit their non-existant guilt, look for "witnesses" to make the person appear in court as a counterfeiter, a hooligan, a drug dealer. The goal is to punish a political activist with imprisonment for a year and a half, in the absence of evidence of guilt. The law allows to extend detention for a maximum of 18 months.

Then begins a long trial with a maximum of three years. As a result, by the end of the trial an innocent person serves more than four years in a cell and is released as if for lack of corpus delicti.  The authorities have turned remand centres into places of imprisonment for those whose activity frightens them. There are hundreds of such cases - members of the PPFA, religious activists, journalists languishing in detention centres awaiting trial," Safarov told Namizad.

According to the lawyer, professional investigators can finish work on one criminal case in 2-3 months. His colleagues are nostalgic for the Soviet era, when the law set the deadline for investigative actions at two months. In rare cases, when the workload of investigators was very large due to the need to question a large number of witnesses, the prosecutor's office, after checking the investigator's petition, could extend the detention period for another two months.  

Note that Safarov does not believe that Azerbaijan, within the framework of reforming the legal system, will abandon the endless extension of the time of deprivation of liberty on the pretext of the complexity of the investigation. "On the contrary, lawmakers have authorised extending the period of investigative actions under the pretext of reforming the legal system.  I am afraid how they might not remove the one-and-a-half-year deadline for investigative detention, making this period endless. Under the current government, reform can only be reactionary," lawyer Namizad Safarov added.