The Court of Appeal leaves the PFPA activist Ruslan Garayev in custody

 On 6 August the Sumgait Appeal Court (SAC) dismissed the activists of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), Ruslan Garayev to administrative arrest. He was arrested on July 20 for a period of twenty days on charges of committing administrative offenses - "hooliganism" and "not obeying police." The activist rejected the accusations, calling them fictitious.  Asabali Mustafayev, the lawyer of Garayev, told Turan about biased investigation of the appeal. The trial in the Court of Appeal in the case Garayev was held with violation of law. So, despite the fact that on 27 July the lawyer presented to the court an appeal, it was considered only on 6 August. Although, according to the law, in such cases, the complaint should be considered within one day.

Neither the complaint, nor the numerous petitions have been satisfied. The court did not investigate the reasons for preventing the meeting of the lawyer with his client; the petition on summons of police officers who detained Garayev and their re-questioning were not satisfied. The court rejected the petition on the request to summon the chief of the insulator of the Sumgayit police. The Court of Appeal dismissed the application on not responding  the appeal of the  lawyer  to  "102"service of the Interior Ministry and a "hot line" of the Ombudsman Office  in connection with preventing his meeting with Garayev.

According to the lawyer, now the defense intends to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to recognize the violation of Garayev’s rights. The PPFA believes that Garayev  is persecuted for political reasons for opposition activities and criticism of the authorities in the social networks on the Internet. Law enforcement agencies do not comment on the arrest of Garayev.-06D--