Supreme Court Commuted Faraj Kerimli

The Supreme Court of Azerbaijan chaired by Farhad Kerimov considered an appeal from Faraj Kerimli today. Today, under the chairmanship of Justice Gulzar Rzayeva, a complaint from his brother Siraj Kerimli was also examined.

Recall that the deputy chairman of the party Musavat Faraj Kerimli and his non-partisan brother Siraj Kerimli were arrested in July 2014 on charges of drug trafficking. F. Kerimli was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison, and S. Kerimli – to 6 years. The latter was pardoned on March 17, 2016, but he is also seeking acquittal. Both brothers were declared «prisoners of conscience» by Amnesty International.

The Supreme Court partially upheld the complaint from F. Kerimli, changing the charge from Article 234.4.3 (illegal manufacture, production, acquisition and possession of drugs) to a softer article 234.1 (illegal purchase or possession of drugs for personal consumption), and reduced his sentence to 3 years of imprisonment.

With regard to S. Kerimli the sentence was retained without change.

The lawyer Nemat Karimli expressed disagreement with the above judgments. Commenting on the results of the meeting for Turan, he noted the defense sought acquittal for the two brothers. On the other hand, the lawyer called unreasonable the unchanged sentence in relation to Siraj Kerimli, while his brother’s verdict was softened, since both were on identical charges.

However, Siraj Kerimli is already in freedom and in this sense the decision of the Supreme Court does not matter. However, the defense intends to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights and to achieve full restoration of the rights of the brothers.

Faraj Kerimli was arrested in connection with the fact that at that time he was an adviser to the head of the party Musavat, and Siraj was arrested a week before the arrest of Faraj by mistake, the lawyer said. -0C06-