Leyla Yunus Accuses (UPDATED)

In the trial of the couple Yunus at the Baku Serious Crimes Court, the defendant, referring to the judge Afghan Hajiyev, accused him of violating Article 91 of the Code of Criminal Procedure because of the fact that he did not allow her to speak.

The lawyer Elchin Gambarov drew the judge's attention to the fact that journalists, activists and diplomats were not let into the room.

The defense noted that the lawyer Shohrat Allahmanov cannot represent the victim Rena Safaraliyeva because the NGO Society of Women of the Caucasus for Peace and Democracy led by her self-liquidated last year

The lawyer Ramiz Mammadov asked what moral damage Yunus caused to Safaraliyeva.

The defense petitioned to dismiss Allahmanov. However, the court rejected the petition.

The lawyer Afghan Mammadov petitioned to change the measure of restraint for Arif Yunusov, but the prosecutor Farid Naghiyev opposed.

Yunus said that her husband is accused of treason, although still in the late 1980s he wrote a book about the deportation of Azerbaijanis from Armenia and he is the author of a book about the Khojaly genocide, while his book about the Karabakh conflict is contained in the library of the US State Department.

Arif Yunus himself said that he would write a book about the prosecutor's office, which arrested him four times. The first arrest was connected with his transfer of the facts of expulsion of Azerbaijanis from the Gafan area in Armenia to the press. However, the judge interrupted him.

L. Yunus, referring to the prosecutor, called him and other investigators "executioners".

Further, the indictment was read. The spouses Yunus said they did not plead guilty. L. Yunus said the indictment is completely falsified.

She said that her husband was transferring his money from one account to another and there is no crime in that. She said that she used the money not of Azerbaijan, but of donors, and the documents were falsified by the investigation.

"This trial is from the 1930s. You act on request. You do what you did against Solzhenitsyn," L. Yunus said to the judge, who ordered the translator not to translate the last words.

"In Azerbaijan, there is despotism and repression, and you cannot go beyond the order," then said Yunus.

Then the witnesses testified. The head of a department in the City Hall Zulfali Ismayilov stated that the house of the Yunus couple down the street Sh. Badalbeyli was demolished on a legal basis and they carried away documents and computers.

In response, L. Yunus said that he was lying because there is a decision of the Supreme Court that the office was demolished in the course of the property destruction.

A. Yunus said that the Mayor's office on August 25 sent a warning to demolish the house, but the house was demolished on 11 August.

The witness Azad Isazadeh confirmed that during the demolition of the building property was destroyed.

He was only able to save one computer and two books. At the same time, a bulldozer began the demolition and did not allow him to save other documents. The demolition was led by Yusif Gambarov and not by Zulfali Ismayilov.

The witness Tahmasib Novruzov said that since 1988 he suspected Leyla Yunus of having links with the Armenians, but later he learned that she worked for the intelligence of Armenia. On the question of the defense where he knew that from, the witness said that he knew that from the press.

L. Yunus called him a duty witness and an agent provocateur. Novruzov himself could not answer the question who called him to the court as a witness. -06D-

2015 July 27 (Monday) 13:25:39

It seems that carrying opaque trials of prominent public activists as prisoners of conscience in Azerbaijan takes a systematic character.

Once again, it happened on Monday July 27 at the trial of the couple Leyla and Arif Yunus in the Baku Court of Grave Crimes.

The meeting was scheduled for 10:00 a.m. and at 9:30 representatives of civil society, political parties, journalists and members of the Western diplomatic missions gathered before the court.

However, the courtroom doors were tightly closed. After 10:00 still nobody was let into the hall and the trial was held in the smallest room, although the available large ones were empty.

Meanwhile, the lawyer Elchin Gambarov told Turan the hall was already half full. These people were passed through the service door of the court.

The Director of Turan IA Mehman Aliyev also tried to pass through the main entrance, but he was not allowed there and told it was possible to pass only in a commonly allowed manner.

When he asked why in that case they let others, officers at the entrance said there were only journalists. "I am also a journalist and I am not allowed," said Aliyev, but he was refused. Then three other men came in plainclothes and asked him to go to the common entrance. Aliyev was promised to be allowed into the room, but deceived.

The door to the courtroom opened only for a moment and two journalists, one diplomat and one activist were allowed in.

The lawyer Gambarov again said by telephone that the hall had 15 empty seats available. However, after a few minutes the meeting began. From behind the door the voice of Leyla Yunus was heard. She demanded to let journalists and members of the public into the hall, recalling the requirement of the Criminal Proceeding Code about the openness of a trial.

Then the bailiffs began to force the angered activists and journalists out of the corridor. The most zealous police officer pushed the women out by force and refused to give his name. His colleagues began to shield him and also declined to name him, although the man’s video images were taken.

Bailiffs and employees of the Prison Service acted similarly during the trials of the human rights activist Rasul Jafarov and the journalist Khadija Ismayilova. -06D-