Ali Aliyev convicted of slander for third time

Baku/23.06.22/Turan: Yasamal district court on Thursday passed another sentence for slander to Ali Aliyev, head of the "Citizens and Development" Party.

The complaint was filed as a private accusation by former functionary of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party Ramiz Geyushev.

The court found Aliyev guilty under Article 148 (insult) of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to six months of imprisonment.

In so doing, the court combined this verdict with two previous sentences given to Aliyev in January and April of this year, and sentenced him to 12 months of imprisonment in a general regime colony. The term of punishment is calculated from January 13.

The lawyer Javad Javadov informed Turan about it, calling the sentence wrongful. Note that there is no fact of insult in the case, and Aliyev operated the facts for which Geyushev was expelled from the ruling Party.

Besides, the court did not apply an amnesty to Aliyev.  The thing is that Article 148 (insult) of the Criminal Code fell under the amnesty announced in November 2021. However, the court did not do it.

Aliyev himself called the verdict political, as continuation of previous court decisions.

Recall that we are talking about the suit of a former member of the ruling Party Ramiz Geyushev. The latter sued after Ali Aliyev called him in a video interview to Boomerang TV in September 2021 as a "hare," a "thief," and a "masturbator. The reason for this was the footage that appeared on the Internet in September 2021, in which Geyushev was watching a porn video.  The journalist who distributed the footage was arrested and Geyushev was expelled from the Party.

*On January 13 this year Ali Aliyev was sentenced to 5 months of imprisonment on slander charges (Article 147.1 of the Criminal Code), based on a complaint from Emil Jafarov, an officer of the State Border Guard Service (SBGS).

On April 15, the court increased its sentence by one month and thus satisfied the complaint of another State Border Guard Service officer, Ramin Adilov, against Aliyev.

The reason for the lawsuits was the statement of Aliyev in the press that the officers in question could not have survived the crash of an MI-17 SPS helicopter on November 30, 2021, and that the helicopter could have been shot down by the Russian side.  During the crash of the SPS helicopter last November, 14 officers of the agency were killed and two survived.

Ali Aliyev rejected both verdicts calling his arrest "a political order by the country's leadership".

Human rights activists recognized Aliyev as a political prisoner--03B06-