Trial of Anar Mammadli to begin April 21

Baku/10.04.14/Turan : The Baku Court of Grave Crimes received a criminal case against the head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Training Center (EMDTC) Anar Mammadli, executive director of the NGO Bashir Suleymanli and the head of the Public Association for International Cooperation Volunteers, Elnur Mammadov.

Preliminary hearing on the case is scheduled at 10:30 a.m. on April 21 , the lawyer Fariz Namazly told Turan. It will be led by the judicial structure headed by Rauf Aliyev.

Note that this judge was in the center of a scandal in connection with the March 20 car accident on the highway Rasulzade - Novkhani . According to media reports , Aliyev passed on " red light " and created an emergency situation . At the same time , he beat up the driver of the car Azpetrol, Ilgar Pashayev, who expressed dissatisfaction with the actions of Aliyev. However, the case was brought against Pashayev as "hooliganism."

Aliyev maintains that he did not beat the driver, but was attacked instead.

Anar Mammadli was arrested on December 16, 2013 on charges of illegal business , tax evasion , and abuse of office .

The court sanctioned his arrest for three months. March 19 preliminary investigation was completed and Mammadli, as well as two other activists, were charged under Art. 179.3.2 (embezzlement on a large scale ) and Art. 313 ( forgery) of the Criminal Code.

** Amnesty International has recognized Mammedli " prisoner of conscience". The real reason for the arrest of Mammadli is exposing the fraud of the authorities during the presidential elections in Azerbaijan in October last year. -06B-