The Court of Appeal left Ali Aliyev in prison

Baku/30.04.22/Turan: The day before, the Baku Court of Appeal considered the complaint of Ali Aliyev, leader of the Citizens and Development Party, against the conviction. Aliyev was sentenced on January 13 of this year to 5 months in prison on charges of slander (Article 147.1 of the Criminal Code) upon the complaint of an officer of the state border service, Emil Jafarov.

On April 15, the court increased the sentence by another month, also satisfying the complaint against Aliyev by another officer of the state border service, Ramin Adilov.

The reason for the lawsuits was the statement by Ali Aliyev in the press that the said officers could not have survived the crash of the MI-17 helicopter of the Border Service on November 30, 2021 and that the helicopter could have been shot down by the Russian side. In the crash of a helicopter of the Border Service in November last year, 14 officers of this department were killed, and two survived.

Ali Aliyev rejected both verdicts, calling his arrest "a political order from the country's leadership."

On April 30, the defense again pointed out the absurdity of Aliyev's criminal prosecution, lawyer Javad Javadov said.

In particular, it was noted that Aliyev's statements fit into the framework of freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution of Azerbaijan and the European Convention on Human Rights.

On the other hand, the repeated conviction of a person for the same act incriminated to him is contrary to the principles of law. However, the Court of Appeal did not heed the arguments of the defense and upheld the verdict. Now the defense will file a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court.—06B-