Trial in the case of Azerbaijanis without evidence of accusation has been lasting for a year and a half

On September 8, a regular court trial in the case of the detained veteran of the Second Karabakh War, Misir Gasimly, was held in Kiev. The trial in his case has been lasting in Kyiv for a year and a half. The  case is considered in the Court of Appeal of Ukraine. Azerbaijani citizen Misir Gasimly and his comrade Subhan Guliyev were charged with kidnapping, violence against him, and possession of weapons.  The prosecution does not have any evidence of their guilt, lawyer Valery Dobranitsa told Turan.

The Spanish citizen, who was allegedly beaten up by Gasimly and Guliyev, has never appeared in court,  a lawyer Dobranitsa has never seen this person. The Spaniard changed lawyers four times, which indicates the reluctance of lawyers to engage in a hopeless case. The court does not take into account the appeals of the Organization of War Veterans of Azerbaijan, petitioning for the transfer of the accused to house arrest, the judge does not take into account the positive characteristics of the military unit in Azerbaijan, in which Gasimly fought in the Patriotic War in Karabakh, in 2020. The judge also ignores the appeals of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Ukraine, whose young representatives are heroically fighting for this country. The representative of the United Diaspora of Ukrainian Azerbaijanis, speaking in court, asked to release the accused on bail, but the judge rejected the request. Veterans of the Patriotic War held a protest action in front of the Ukrainian embassy in Baku.

In a conversation with Turan, Dobranitsa  listed reasons that give a ground to think that some third force is putting pressure on the justice of Ukraine in order to imprison an innocent person. The fact is that Gasimly, a volunteer, a defender of Azerbaijan, spread information about the Patriotic War in Karabakh. Plenty of evidence indicates that the Armenian community in Ukraine is pressuring the court to imprison Qasimly for a long time.

It is hard to imagine, but the prosecutor stated in court that the defendant should not be released because he fought in Karabakh. By analogy with this requirement, we can say that the prosecutor considers it impossible for Ukrainians who fought against the occupying forces of Russia to stay free, the lawyer said.

Misir Gasimly’s sister, noted that due to the interference of Armenians in the course of this case, the trial dragged on for one year. According to her, the video footage taken by her brother during the Patriotic War caused discontent among the Armenians.

The words by the lawyer  about the presence of a third party interested in convicting Misir is surprising, as if what is happening does not relate to Ukraine.

According to the lawyer, the judge evicted out  representatives of the Azerbaijani embassy from the courtroom, who came to find out what was happening. The judge does not consider the motions of the defense, skipping the deadlines for consideration established by law. The entire version of the prosecutor's office is based on conjectures, there is not a single fact directly proving Gasimly's participation in the crime, nevertheless, the prosecutor's office is violating the law of Ukraine. Finally, at the court hearing on September 8, the defense presented the judge  the documents, one of which was translated into Ukrainian by Galustyan, the Armenian.

"In the courtroom  my client said that there are interested forces who want to quarrel Azerbaijan and Ukraine, and that the judge, investigators and the prosecutor are directly involved in this case," the lawyer said.

Misir Gasimly, who lived in Russia, came to Azerbaijan when the 44-day war began and volunteered for the front. After the war, he came to Ukraine. On June 8, 2021, he with Subhan Guliyev  was in a Kiev restaurant, where a Spanish citizen sat down at their table.  They talked, and it turned out that the Spaniard's mother was Armenian. The foreigner paid the bill in the restaurant for Misir Gasimly. The three went to another restaurant, and on the way, the Spaniard-Armenian suggested that the Azerbaijanis sell drugs. The dirty proposal  caused a scandal, Gasimly drove the Spaniard away, and then the  Spaniard drug-criminal who left them accused the Azerbaijanis of attack and robbery.

On September 6, the Kiev Court of Appeal did not hold a meeting on the appeal, which the lawyer filed on May 18. Under Ukrainian law, judges are required to consider a complaint within 60 days. But every time the judges come up with a new reason to postpone consideration of the lawyer's appeal, Valery Dobranitsa told Turan.

On the same day, the judge was replaced, and the new judge looked like Armenian, but with a Slavic name and surname, and  she was biased towards the defendant. This woman spoke excellent Russian between the hearings, but at the hearing she forbade the defendant Gasimly to speak Russian, since, according to her, she did not know this language. This is prohibited by law.

On September 6, the Court of Appeal announced that the court sent documents to the Detention Facility to bring Misir to court, but the instruction was not fulfilled.

On September 8, new important events took place in the court. Judge Aleksandr Tikhansky returned from the war and continued to consider the case. According to the lawyer, the prosecution was presented two videos. One disc, submitted  to the judge by the prosecutor, shows a search of the apartment where Misir lived. I note that several guys lived there, and the apartment is rented.

After watching the video disc, the lawyers proved that the search was carried out without the permission of the owner of the apartment and without the participation of an interpreter. There was no legalization of investigative actions. This legally makes the search illegal. And on the discovered pistol they did not find traces of Misir's fingers, that is, there is no evidence that the weapon was related to my client.

In another video, the prosecutor promised to show Misir Guliyev and his car as evidence that the defendant had withdrawn money from the bank card belonging to the victim. But the video does not show Misir, it is not clear what kind of car, there is no evidence that the card belonged to the victim.

The representatives of the Azerbaijani Embassy, the Diaspora and the Armed Forces of Ukraine attended the  court.

The prosecutor asked to extend Misir's stay in the pre-trial detention center for another 60 days. The victim's lawyer showed a letter from a doctor stating that the Spaniard victim was ill and the doctor advised him not to fly to Kiev for trial. Later it turned out that this document was translated into Ukrainian by a translator Galustyan (Armenian surname).

Misir's lawyers asked the court to change the preventive measure so that the accused could live in an apartment in Kiev during the trial, since there are no risks for the trial. Order bearers - veterans of the war in Ukraine, and the Azerbaijani diaspora asked  to pardon the accused.  We were shocked when the judge  refused to comply with the request of the veterans to bail the accused,  the lawyer noted.

According to him, representatives of the Azerbaijani embassy  noted the biased attitude  of the prosecutor and judge. There was not even an identification of the person and the car on the video recording, but the judge did not change the measure of restraint for the accused.

"Today, 15 months have passed since Subhan Guliyev and Misir Gasimly have been held in a pre-trial detention center. The accused can be sentenced to 15 years in prison, without evidence of guilt," lawyer Valery Dobranitsa summed up.

The case of M. Gasimly and S. Guliyev was considered in the Obukhov district court of the Kyiv region. Prosecutor Rinat Kuzmenko announced the Articles under which the detainees are charged (hooliganism, kidnapping, illegal possession of weapons), and requested from 8 to 15 years in prison.

"The accusation is based on the prosecutor's inventions, is not supported by facts, and the court, understanding this situation, instead of legally considering the case, is biased against my clients. This year, not a single court hearing was scheduled to consider the criminal case of Misir and Subhan.

The case stands still, the “victim” is not in Ukraine, only his lawyer comes to court sessions. Every two months a court session is held to extend the arrest of Misir and Subhan. They extend the arrest, but the criminal case is not heard in court," the lawyer said. The next court session on the trial is scheduled for September 12.

In the second year of an unreasonably long trial, the Gasimly family ran out of funds to pay a lawyer. According to Zumrud, a relative of Misir, who lives in Moscow, the defendant's mother mortgaged  their apartment in order to pay expenses. To search for financial resources, the family of the accused opened bank accounts and asks everyone to help them by transferring all possible financial assistance to the accounts.

The illustrations for the article show bank accounts.