Sentence on Nardaran Events Politically Motivated

Baku / 05.01.18 / Turan: The Monitoring Center for Political Prisoners condemned the long imprisonment sentences on two groups of accused on the Nardaran events.

"Instead of the expected pardon for the Day of Solidarity of World Azerbaijanis and New Year, cruel sentences were handed down to two groups of accused of the Nardaran events, who were sentenced to 12 to 15 years of imprisonment," the human rights organization"s head Elshan Hasanov said.

According to him, 24 people were convicted under the so-called Nardaran Case-2 and Nardaran Case-3, including the deputy chairman of the Muslim Unity Movement Elchin Gasymov and the known theologian Zulfugar Mikayilov.

At the same time, among those convicted were persons who are not related to the Muslim Unity Movement.

According to Hasanov, the preliminary investigation and trials took place with grave violations of the European Convention on Human Rights. Many of the accused were deprived of effective legal protection. More than 20 defendants were defended only by 4 lawyers whose applications were not satisfied, complaints of torture were not considered, and participation in the courts of human rights defenders was limited.

The Monitoring Center for Political Prisoners saw in these cases violations of the rights of accused, guaranteed by Article 3 (prohibition of torture), Article 6 (right to a fair trial), Article 7 (punishment solely on the basis of the law), and Article 13 (right to effective legal protection).

"We consider the verdicts rendered as legally unjustified and politically motivated. We demand the release of the convicts," the statement said.

Convicts on the Nardaran events were recognized by local and international human rights defenders as political prisoners, the document says.

* On November 26, 2015, police conducted a special operation in the village of Nardaran, during which the leader of the movement Muslim Unity Taleh Bagirzadeh and a group of his supporters were arrested.

After that, activists and supporters of the movement Muslim Unity were arrested in Baku and other regions. They were accused of terrorism, illegal storage of weapons, an attempt to violently change the constitutional order, resistance to the police, etc. -06B--