The trial of Gezal Bayramli is artificially prolonged - lawyer

Baku/02.04.18/Turan: Today in Ganja Court of Appeal, the trial of deputy chairman of the People's Front Party Gezal Bayramli was postponed again. At the beginning of the meeting, the presiding judge, Teyub Mukhtarov, stated that the requests sent to the State Customs Committee and the State Procurement Service to submit video recordings from the checkpoint on the Azerbaijani-Georgian border were directed, but no replies had been received. For this reason, the judge postponed the meeting on April 20.

Attorney Elchin Sadigov said that this behavior of the court is illegal and is an artificial delay in the process. "When we asked for a video, the judge stated that it was not satisfied. In the past, the prosecutor had already spoken and asked to uphold the verdict. Gezal Bayramli made the final statement, and now they say that the petition is granted. This is nothing more than an artificial tightening of the process," said the lawyer.

*Bayramli was detained on May 25, 2017 at the border crossing point upon his return from Georgia. A criminal case was opened against her in accordance with Article 206.1 (smuggling) of the Criminal Code and the court arrested her. According to the investigation, during the inspection of baggage Bayramli were found 12 thousand dollars, which she allegedly did not declare.

Bayramli said that the money was planted to her, and her arrest is of a customized political nature. She also stated that she went to Georgia for treatment and for the last two years she underwent surgery there. On January 23, the court sentenced her to 3 years in prison. The verdict was condemned by the US State Department, PACE representatives, international human rights organizations. -03B06-