The next meeting in the case of Mukhtarly is scheduled for December 28 (updated)

After the break, hearings of the testimony of witnesses continued. Some of them did not appear in court. Therefore, their testimony was postponed to the next trial to fe held on 28 December t 10:30. -0-

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2017 December 14 (Thursday) 14:11:04

At Afgan Mukhtarly"s Trial

Baku / 14.12.17 / Turan: A court investigation on the case of journalist Afgan Mukhtarly started in the Balaken District Court today.

Recall that the journalist Afgan Mukhtarly, who had permission for temporary residence in Georgia, was kidnapped in the center of Tbilisi on May 29, and then transferred to Azerbaijan. According to him, this was done by the employees of the criminal police of Georgia together with law enforcement bodies of Azerbaijan.

When crossing the border, he was pushed EUR 10 thousand into his pocket, and accused of smuggling this money.

The next day, Mukhtarly was in Baku, where the court arrested him on charges of three articles: 315 (resistance to the representative of the authorities), 318.1 (illegal border crossing) and 206.1 - smuggling.

As reported by the lawyer Nemat Kerimli, the indictment was read out at the court session. Mukhtarly denied the charges, saying he was abducted in Tbilisi and secretly smuggled across the border and handed over to law enforcement agencies of Azerbaijan.

Then the court began to listen to the testimony of the witnesses - officers of the law enforcement agencies.

According to the lawyer, the defense revealed that the witnesses have the opportunity to listen to each other's testimony. At least two witnesses listened to the representative of the frontier department.

At the request of the defense, one of the witnesses was removed from the list of witnesses.

The trial continues. Representatives of civil society and the US embassy are watching it.

Mukhtarly is recognized as a political prisoner by local and international human rights defenders. Colleagues are convinced that he is being persecuted for his critical publications on corruption in the highest echelons of power in Azerbaijan.-03B06-