Baku Court of Appeal today dismissed an appeal by Anar Mammadov the head of the Elections Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDSC), and two other activists -Bashir Suleymanli and Elnur Mammadov, upheld the conviction. Representatives of the EU mission, embassies of France, Germany, Great Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands attended the hearing. The lawyer Alibaba Rzayev said that on none of the five articles of charges the defendant’s guilt was proved.
He reminded that a lawsuit was filed under the Article "appropriation, tax evasion". However, the decision to file a lawsuit does not indicate on what basis it was commenced - as in there was no complainants or victims, or operational information.
According to his lawyer, after the institution of proceedings under these Articles they began to collect evidence that confirms the political nature of the charges.
According to the lawyer, the reason for the prosecution of activists is the monitoring the presidential elections in 2013 and the conclusion of the results. "The investigation, on the one hand, claims that the accused appropriated the grant of the National Democratic Institute of the USA, on the other hand, recognizes the conducting monitoring. If there was a monitoring, how can they speak about misappropriation of money? On the other hand, neither the donor nor the other "victims" consider themselves guilty," said Rzayev, and asked the court to acquit the convicts.
The lawyer of the three convicts, Elchin Sadigov, said that the investigation of this case began after the instruction of the Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov. It was the day after the presidential election, when EMDSC gave a negative assessment of the elections. The investigation blamed the activists that they have not registered a grant of the NDI. However, they notified the Ministry of Justice, but received no response. Of the 20 victims 19 have reported that they have no claims to the accused.
Sadigov also asked for justification of the convicts. "We have arrested innocent and unsubstantiated," said Mammadov. He called absurd accusations that the activists have influenced the results of the presidential elections. However, the prosecutor Jeyhun Budagov upheld the verdict. As a result, the court chaired by Aflatun Gasimov decided that guilt of the activists had been proven, and dismissed the complaint. Protection intends to file an appeal to the Supreme Court.
* Anar Mammadov was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison, and the executive secretary of the NGO Bashir Suleymanli to 3.5 years. For the same period was conditionally sentenced the head of the Public Association for International Cooperation volunteers Elnur Mammadov. They were found guilty of tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship, misappropriation and others. Anar Mammadov was recognized by Amnesty International “a prisoner of conscience.” In late September, he was awarded the Prize of Vaclav Havel. -C06-
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