Ali Aliyev is denied meeting with a lawyer and telephone conversations with his family

Baku/30.08.22/Turan: “Ali Aliyev, the head of the "Citizens and Development Party" , kept in the pre-trial detention center N1, has not been able to contact his family by phone for  eight days. I, as his lawyer,  am not allowed to meet with him under various pretexts,” Togrul Babayev told Turan.

According to him, the management of the pre-trial detention center  demands to obtain special permission from the Penitentiary Service to meet with Aliyev. “Before that, on the basis of the permission of the Penitentiary Service, I met Ali Aliyev twice. Now the management of the pre-trial detention center demands a new permit. Today I submitted my attorney's warrant to the Prison Service. Let's see what they say after that," the lawyer said.

The wife of the opposition leader, Dilara Aliyeva, appealed to the Ombudswoman because her husband was not given the opportunity to speak on the phone. Her complaint is being investigated.

The public relations department of the Penitentiary Service told Turan that in all pre-trial detention centers and penal institutions, prisoners are given the opportunity to have telephone conversations. 

*Ali Aliyev was sentenced on January 13 of this year to 5 months in prison on charges of libel (Article 147.1 of the Criminal Code) based on a complaint from an officer of the State Border Service (SBS) Emil Jafarov.

On April 15, the court increased the sentence by another month, satisfying the complaint against Aliyev by another officer of the State Border Service, Ramin Adilov.

The reason for the lawsuits was the statement by Ali Aliyev in the press that the said officers could not survive the crash of the MI-17 State Border Service helicopter on November 30, 2021, and that the helicopter could have been shot down by the Russian side. In the crash of the State Border Service helicopter in November last year, 14 officers of this department were killed, and two survived. They also filed lawsuits.

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

On June 23, the Yasamal court increased Aliyev's sentence to 1 year in prison, satisfying the complaint of Ramiz Geyushev, a former functionary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. The latter sued Ali Aliyev after he, in a video interview with Boomerang TV in September 2021, called him a “hare”, “fraer” and “masturbator”.

The reason for this was the footage that appeared on the Internet in September 2021, in which Geyushev is watching a porn video. The journalist who distributed these footage was arrested, and Geyushev was expelled from the party.

**Human rights activists recognized Aliyev as a political prisoner. --06B03--