Court reduces sentence for activist deported from Germany

Baku/16.03.23/Turan: Baku Court of Appeal ( BCA) on 16 March partially satisfied the complaint of activist Jafar Mirzoev, arrested in a drug case after being deported from Germany.

The court reduced the prison term from 6 to 5 years, lawyer Neymat Kerimli told Turan.

He stated that the Court of Appeal had not addressed the shortcomings of the first-instance court.

"There are quite a lot of contradictions and inconsistencies in the criminal case. The main flaw is the incomplete video of the drug seizure. A part of the video has been deleted, so it cannot be considered as evidence. This was enough to terminate the criminal case," the lawyer said.

Besides, the court did not satisfy the defence motion to present the police logbook.

"The criminal case alleges that the police allegedly received operational information about Jafar Mirzoyev selling drugs.  If this is indeed true, then there is an appropriate entry in the operational-registration log. However, there is no such record, so the court did not ask for this journal," said the lawyer.

Mirzoyev said in court that he had been arrested because of his political activities, for his participation in German protests against the policy of the Azerbaijani government.

The lawyer said an appeal would be lodged against the BCA decision.

Jafar Mirzoyev is one of four activists arrested following his expulsion from Germany in late 2021-early 2022 on charges of drug trafficking. Another activist expelled from Germany was arrested on another charge. All have been declared political prisoners by human rights activists.

The real reason for these arrests, according to human rights groups, was the participation of political emigrants in protests in Europe demanding the release of political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

Mirzoyev was expelled from Germany on 25 November 2021 and arrested in Baku on 27 January. He is charged under Article 234.4.3 (drug trafficking on a large scale) of the Criminal Code. -03B06-