Lawyer Persecuted for Defending Rufat Safarov

The First Deputy Prosecutor General Rustam Usubov filed a complaint with the Bar Association against the lawyer Bahruz Bayramli.

According to the lawyer, the Prosecutor's Office wants to remove him from the defense of Rufat Safarov, former Prosecutor of the Zardob district, convicted on fabricated charges of accepting bribes.

"The Prosecutor's Office has no evidence of Safarov’s guilt, and the trial showed that. Therefore, the Prosecutor's Office wants to deprive Safarov of defense,” the lawyer told Turan IA.

Recall that the reason for the Prosecutor's appeal was an appeal of the former Assistant Prosecutor of the Gubadli district Adil Mammadov, who was granted asylum in the United States. Mammadov accused the lawyer Bayramli, saying he told the press that Mammadov was dismissed from the Prosecutor's Office for contacts with Safarov.

Mammadov considers these publoications an insult or a slander, and he has decided to complain to the authorities, from which he escaped to the United States.

"I did not inform the press about Adil Mammadov. This was written first by the website Gununsesi.az. The management of this website said it had received the information from another source," said the lawyer.

On this occasion, Safarov sentenced to 9 years also wrote an appeal to the Bar, rejecting accusations by Mammadov.

Recall that Rufat Safarov was arrested in January and imprisoned in September this year after he reported on iniquities in the Prosecutor’s Office. He was fired and a criminal case was filed against him. Safarov's guilt was never proven by the court, and human rights activists have recognized him a political prisoner.

Turan IA’s attempt to get a comment from the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office did not give results. -02D-