Prosecutor asked to convict Yunis Safarov for life

Baku/30.03.21/Turan: On March 30, at the trial on the "Ganja case" in the Baku Serious Crimes Court, the state prosecutor made a closing speech. He proposed to sentence the main person involved in the case of Yunis Safarov, accused of the attempt on the life of the former mayor of Ganja Elmar Veliyev, to life imprisonment.

The prosecutor asked the other 11 defendants to impose a sentence of 18-20 years in prison.

Earlier, Safarov explained the reason for the assassination attempt on the head of Ganja by the fact that Veliyev "committed lawlessness, committed unjust actions." “I have lived in Moscow for many years, but I followed events in Azerbaijan from the press and the Internet. Since the state bodies did not suppress the illegal actions of Veliyev, I decided to put an end to this, because those who commit illegal actions should be punished. I sent a signal to the authorities and did it in the name of justice,” Safarov said.

* On July 3, 2018, an attempt was made on the life of the then head of the city Elmar Veliyev in Ganja. A native of Ganja, Yunis Safarov wounded him and  his bodyguard.

After that, a protest action in front of the Ganja administration building was scheduled for July 10. On that day, riots broke out in the city, during which two police officers were killed. This was followed by mass arrests of believers and others.

For these events, criminal cases were initiated against 70 people. The defendants were sentenced to imprisonment from 6 to 18 years. About 10 people were released on parole. The trial against Safarov and 11 others began in January 2020. —16D06-