Informal Working Group Dissatisfied with Course of Trial for Rasim Aliyev’s Murder

The Working Group of the Committee for Public Inquiry into the murder of the journalist Rasim Aliyev is not happy with the trial in the case. This was announced at the 20 January meeting of the working group.

The results of the preliminary investigation conducted by the prosecutor's office and the course of the trial raises more questions, said a group member, head of the Azerbaijan National Committee of Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Arzu Abdullayeva.

In her view, the investigation of the case has not been brought to an end. Strange is also separation of the case against the soccer player Javid Huseynov at the end of the preliminary investigation.

"We do not know how guilty of the murder the footballer is. To reveal the truth they should not have separated the case, but on the contrary it was important to conduct a judicial investigation of all the defendants together," said Abdullayeva.

Criticism is also caused by the private character of the trial. Thus, despite the arrival of the representatives of independent media and civil society they cannot get into the courtroom, as the hall is filled in advance by people unrelated to the case.

"This means the society is completely unaware of what is happening at the trial," said Abdullayeva.

"Another problem is refusal to meet applications to protect the suffered party. Regardless of the content of the lawyers' applications, they are not satisfied by the judge, or left unaddressed. With this in mind, we do not believe in the justice of the court," said Abdullayeva.

Following the debate, they adopted an appeal to President Ilham Aliyev, the country's civil society institutions and international organizations.

It contains a request to take control of the judicial process in this case to ensure the adoption of a fair sentence.

A member of the Institute for Reporters Freedom and Safety and an employee of the website www.ann.az journalist Rasim Aliyev was beaten by a group of men on August 8, 2015, and died in hospital the next day. The cause of the incident was Aliyev's criticism of the action of the player of FC Gabala Javid Huseynov on his Facebook page. Huseynov personally argued with him. A criminal case was filed under article 126.3 (deliberate infliction of grievous bodily harm that caused death). Five people - Elshan Ismayilov (a cousin of the footballer Huseynov), Jamal Mammadov, Arif Aliyev, Kanan Madatov and Samir Mustafayev are accused of the murder of the journalist by beating. A member of the football team Gabala Javid Huseynov is charged with failure to report of a crime being prepared and the one already committed. However, colleagues of the journalist and his family believe Huseynov really organized the crime. -05B06-