Court of Appeal Reduces Prison Sentence of Ikram Rahimov

Baku / 09/18/19 / Turan: On September 18, the Baku Court of Appeal concluded the consideration of the complaint against the verdict to the realliq.info website editor, Ikram Rahimov.

The appellate court confirmed Rahimov"s guilt of extortion through threats. However, the court applied article 62 (punishment less than prescribed by law) of the Criminal Code and reduced the term of imprisonment from 5.5 years to 3 years.

This was reported to Turan by relatives of Rahimov.

According to them, Rahimov in the last word stated that he was being persecuted on trumped-up charges because of criticism of Ali Hasanov, the assistant to the President of Azerbaijan on socio-political issues, and the press council "controlled" by the latter. Rahimov warned that if the court does not release him, he will resume his hunger strike.

* The editor of the website realliq.info Ikram Rahimov was detained on October 26, 2018, charged with extortion by threats and arrested. On June 12, the court sentenced him to 5.5 years in prison. On August 7, a preliminary hearing was held in the Baku Court of Appeal on the Rahimov case. The defense requested a second judicial investigation, new interrogations of the witnesses and victims due to falsification of their testimonies in the trial court.

The lawyer also asked to appoint a re-examination of the audio recording of Rahimov's telephone conversations for the same reason. However, the applications were not granted. In protest, Rahimov began a hunger strike, which he stopped on the 30th day - September 5th. -06B--