The Court of Appeal rejected the petitions of Mehman Huseynov

Today in the Baku Court of Appeal, under the chairmanship of Vagif Mursagulov, a preliminary hearing was held in the case of the convicted blogger Mehman Huseynov. The  trial  was observed by representatives of the democratic public of Azerbaijan, employees of the embassies of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, the EU mission. At the same time, many activists did not get into the hall because of the limited space. The rights of Huseynov were defended by lawyers Fuad Agayev, Shakhla Humbatova, and Elchin Sadygov. The private prosecutor was represented by the lawyer Alirza Abilov. Huseynov was imprisoned in a glass cage, but looked cheerful. The lawyers put forward a number of motions, suggesting to take photos and at least a partial audio and video recording of the process. They also asked to hold the  trial in a large hall. The defense also petitioned for the termination of criminal proceedings on justifiable grounds.

In case of rejection of this petition, the defense petitioned to change the measure of restraint and release of the blogger from custody, examination of the complaint with a partial second judicial investigation, interrogate the prosecutor - the head of the Nasimi police Musa Musayev, to request recordings from surveillance cameras in the Nasimi police. In addition, lawyer Agayev asked to request data from the video recorder of the post-patrol police machine, which allegedly arrived on January 9 to the place where she detained Huseynov, allegedly for a conflict with a certain person.

Huseynov himself said that he would like to change the measure of restraint, but in principle he does not care what the court decides. The court rejected all the motions and ordered a substantive hearing at 10:30 on April 10.

* The head of IRFS, blogger Mehman Huseynov was sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment on March 3 on charges of defamation on the suit of Nasimi police chief Musa Musayev. The reason for the claim was the blogger's statements about his abduction and torture by the Nasimi police. Huseynov himself and human rights organizations are convinced that the blogger is being persecuted for critical reports on social networks about high-ranking officials of Azerbaijan. --03B16--