Arrested website editor's wife also faces jail time

Baku/16.12.22/Turan: A libel complaint has been filed against Arzu Rzayeva, the wife of Osman Narimanoglu, the editor of the Demokratik.az website who was arrested on charges of extortion. The executive director of the Goygol regional hospital Vasif Aliyev is a private prosecutor. Rzayeva herself informed Turan about this.

The reason for the claim under the Article 147.2 (slander about committing a serious crime) was Rzayeva's speech on the Youtube channel "Hour of Law", where she talked about her husband's criminal case. According to the woman, the prosecutor's claims were caused by her words that Vasif Aliyev is "a brother-in-law of the district prosecutor." In addition, a private prosecutor considered Rzayeva's words about his corruption to be slanderous. On December 14, a preparatory meeting was held at the Goygol District Court, where the judge accepted the case for proceedings.

“I did not have a lawyer. My relatives were not allowed into court. The judge demanded that I apologize to Vasif Aliyev. But I refused, after that the case was taken into consideration. Not only was my husband arrested. They also want to arrest me, the mother of two children,” Rzayeva said. The next meeting is scheduled for December 19th.

It was not possible to contact V. Aliyev and get comments from the Goygol district court. The head of the Media Rights Group, Khalid Agaliyev, considers bringing Rzayeva to justice on charges of defamation unreasonable.

“Firstly, she voiced allegations that had been circulated in the media before her. She spoke about these facts in the context of the criminal case against her husband. On the other hand, as a member of the arrested person's family, she has the right to defend him. Therefore, the persecution of Rzayeva on charges of slander is unlawful,” Agaliyev told Turan. According to Article 147.2 Rzayeva faces a prison sentence of up to 3 years.

As for Osman Narimanoglu, he was arrested on July 5, 2022, on charges of extortion from officials of the Land Reclamation Department and doctors of the Goranboy and Goygol regions. After his arrest, he stated that the accusations were false, that he was slandered by those on whose corruption he published materials. ---06B---