Court of Appeal denied Elchin Mammad' early release

Baku/29.08.22/Turan: The Baku Court of Appeal has rejected human rights activist Elchin Mammad's appeal against the refusal to release him on parole for serving half of his sentence. This was reported to Turan by his mother, Rakhilya Mammadli.

"Elchin appeared in court and pointed to the falsification of charges. Elementary, in front of Elchin's office in Sumgayit there is a surveillance camera of the city security. If you look at its records, it is obvious that unauthorized persons entered his office at night and planted the bullets and jewelry of the "victim". The office owner himself also admitted that he had another key to the premises. My son was convicted without evidence", - said Rakhilya Mammadli.

According to her, the prosecutor reproached his son that he "did not repent of what he had done."

"My son said that he would never confess to the crimes he did not commit. The court did not take into account not only my son's innocence, but also the fact that he has an elderly mother with cancer and two minor children in his care. And Elchin himself suffers from chronic diseases," continued Mammadli.

She said that an appeal against the decision of the court of appeal will be filed to the Supreme Court.

Earlier, Mammad was denied mitigation of the sentence after serving 1/3 of the sentence, although he has no disciplinary sanctions.

* The head of the NGO "Legal Education of Sumgayit Youth" and editor of the website "Yukselish Namine" Elchin Mammad was arrested in March 2020. On October 17 of the same year, the Sumgayit city court sentenced him to 4 years of imprisonment, finding him guilty of "theft" and "illegal storage of ammunition and weapons".

International organizations, specifically "Amnesty International", "PEN", "FİACAT", etc. condemned Mammad's arrest. Local human rights activists recognized him as a political prisoner. -06В-