Defense Applications Rejected at Trial at Appeal Court for "Nardaran Case"

Baku / 13.07.17 / Turan: On July 13, the Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) held a meeting on the "Nardaran case".

Recall that the defendants on this case are the leader of the movement Muslim Unity Taleh Bagirzadeh, 16 more believers, as well as the deputy chairman of the People's Front Party Fuad Gahramanli. They were arrested in November-December 2015 in Nardaran and sentenced to long imprisonment on charges of preparing forcible change of the state system, illegal storage of weapons and other serious crimes. In the court of first instance, these charges, according to the monitoring of human rights organizations, were not confirmed. The defendants claimed that they gave confessions under torture.

International organizations condemned the unfair trial. Fuad Gahramanli is recognized as a prisoner of conscience. He is not involved in the events in Nardaran.

During the July 13 sitting chaired by Judge Amir Bayramov, the lawyers again put forward a number of motions that were rejected on July 6 at a preliminary meeting. In particular, the defenders petitioned to bring to court the head of a department of the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (MDCOC) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Kerim Alimardanov, who directed the special operation in Nardaran on November 26, 2015, when most of the defendants were arrested.

The defense also requested to exclude from the materials of the criminal case the protocol of the examination of the house of the Nardaran resident Abulfaz Bunyadov as an unacceptable evidence, in connection with participation of Zamig Kerimov in this event as a witness. Subsequently, as a witness, he testified that Bagirzadeh allegedly spoke in his sermons against the authorities, saying that "the path will come to power even at the cost of bloodshed." According to the legislation, a witness cannot be an interested person. However, the court rejected both motions.

Further on, the lawyers Fahraddin Mehdiyev, Zibaida Sadigova and Nemat Kerimli spoke. The defendant Rasim Jabrailov spoke, too. He said he was not guilty, and he was tortured in MDCOC. However, the judge interrupted him, demanding "to speak on the merits." This caused discontent among the accused. They wanted to withdraw one of the members of the judicial staff Aflatun Gasimov. But the judges under the pretext of completing the working hours interrupted the meeting and appointed the following hearings at 2.30 pm on 20 July. -35C-