Will the trial be fair?

Baku/10.11.20/Turan:   On November 11, 2020 the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan chaired by judge Gunduz Quliyev will decide the Cassation Appeal by board member of the National Council and former PM Gultakin Hajibayli  against decision of the Nasimi District Court from 16.09.2019. According to this decision Hajibayli should pay 85 000 manats (50 000 US dollars), other vice her apartment and two cars, having been under arrest for already seven years will be confiscated.  The political persecution of the woman politician began since she acceded to the Forum of Pro-Opposition Intellectuals in 2011. Soon Hajibayli was fired from Qafqaz University, where she taught. Simultaneously, her family members lost their jobs.  Following the establishment of the National Council in 2013, persecution intensified. On 17.05.2013, a wide-ranging smear campaign was launched against a member of the National Council with the active participation of pro-government media, followed by numerous lawsuits. In this smear campaign and legal persecution, authorities explicitly used services of G.Hajibeyli's ex-husband Mahmud Mehdiyev, whom he was officially married to in 2003-2004, his mother Nahayat Mammadova and his sister Aynur Mehdiyeva.  On 04.07.2013 Nasimi District Court, without any grounds, decided to take G. Hajibeyli's 9-year-old son from him and hand him over to his father, Mahmud Mehdiyev, whom the child had never seen and who had never paid alimony for 9 years. Later, Mahmud and Aynur Mehdiyevs lodged a lawsuit against G. Hajibeyli in the Yasamal District Court. The essence of the matter was that on 10.06.2013 Aynur Mehdiyeva was detained in the result of a joint operation carried out by the Migration and Anti-Human Trafficking Departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In the very same day, her mother Nahayat Mammadova filed a complaint to the Nasimi District Court claiming she had lent $ 50,000 to his former bride ten years ago. Despite the fact that the in accordance with Azerbaijani civil legislation term of the claim on loan agreements is 3 years in case they are notarized and there are no documents, evidence, notarized loan agreements between the parties, the court accepted this unsubstantiated and false claim and seized all the property of Gultakin Hajibayli. 

In her interview to "Azadlig" newspaper on 05.07.2013 Hajibaily mentioned that in keeping with official information shared by Press Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs dated 13.06.2013, Aynur Mehdiyeva was detained for human trafficking and the authorities used her and her family as a tool of persecution against politician in exchange for her freedom. The Mehdiyevs' lawsuit against Hajibeyli denied the detention of Aynur Mehdiyeva and demanded Gultekin Hajibeyli to be sentenced to four years in prison for slander.  Despite the evident fact of two grave crimes- human trafficking and labor exploitation, and a foreign national who was a specific victim of human trafficking Hajibayli was threatened with arrest during a two-year unfounded and fabricated court challenge.  As far as Mrs. De Fiaz, a victim of human trafficking from the Philippines, did not remain silent in the face of intimidations and threats, and the case became international in nature, it was not possible to save Aynur Mehdiyeva from criminal liability. He was found guilty by the Baku Court of Grave Crimes on May 22, 2014 and sentenced to 8 years and 6 months in prison, but her sentence was commuted to a year probation, in view of her and her family's "servicea" Against Hajibayli.  Mahmud Mehdiyev was dismissed from the post of investigator of the Agdash District Prosecutor's Office by the order of the Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov dated June 18, 2010 on disciplinary action for evasion of military service and actions unworthy of a prosecutor. However, in return for his "services", he was appointed an investigator to the Khatai District Prosecutor's Office by order of the same Zakir Garalov dated January 22, 2014. The Public Prosecutor’s order firmly contradicted with Article 29 of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On the Prosecutor's Office".

Although Mammadova eventually withdrew her money lawsuit against Gultekin Hajibeyli in January 2018 and did not appear in court, the situation has changed in the aftermath of January, 19, 2019 mass rally by the National Council. İn the wake of new surge of reprisals against opposition the lawsuit was unfoundedly restored, moreover, personal car, which has been under arrest since 2013, was forcibly confiscated on 28.02.2019 without a court decision and any legal ground. Azerbaijani courts have refused to consider a complaint against a court execution that preceded the court decision for four hours.

Although N.Mammadova, who has never appeared before the court in  proceeding with length of 7 years,  claimed in her initial claim that she had lent money to G.Hajibeyli,  later on she changed her claim (presumably due to absence of any notarizes agreement) and asserted  that she could not lend money to Hajibayli, because she was her bride, her initial claim was wrong because of her illiteracy and alleged to repair without Hajibayli’s consent (!) her three-room private apartment where Mammadova has never stepped in.  She claims to have spent 50 000 US dollars to repair an apartment, although it was possible to buy three three-rooms apartments for $ 50,000 at 2003 prices. The court did not take into account the expert opinion of a professional and reputable appraisal company, which carried out a financial examination of the repairs on the basis of an official request from Hajibeyli's lawyer and determined that the total cost of the actual repairs did not exceed $ 15,000. The court did not seek an answer to the question of where the pensioner house woman N.Mammadova got $ 50,000 from, whereas the high paid MP allegedly had no money to repair her own apartment.

The years-long persecution campaign against Gultekin Hajibeyli did not go unnoticed by his only child as well. Togrul, 16, has been banned from leaving the country since 2011. The Nasimi District Court rejected the lawsuit filed for his study abroad without providing any grounds. The latest such a claim was considered and rejected by the Nasimi District Court on 26.10.2020, chaired by Judge Ramin Khalilov. The court's reference to the father's rights is also unfounded, as the father, Mahmud Mehdiyev, does not attend the trials as a rule. Moreover, in his application to the Nasimi District Enforcement and Probation Department dated 24.10-2014 he asks not to disturb him and "to return the case to the Supreme Court because he did not have time to meet with his son”. However, Azerbaijani courts have ruled that the opposition leader's son cannot leave the country and study abroad.

In parallel with the prosecution of Gultekin Hajibeyli, other methods of pressure and threats are used. Her personal conversations with US and EU diplomats were illegally recorded and published in the country's media, mobile phone numbers were constantly posted on various escort sites, and social network accounts were repeatedly hacked and destroyed by use cybercrime methods.

The various threats and harassment are systematically used against the entire leadership of the National Council, and serious obstacles are created to the activities of the National Council. Proofs of this are the cybercrime of the National Council's closed and informal ZOOM meetings and the smear campaign followed, the ban on the National Council's meetings, and the harassment of property owners who facilitate these meetings.

Members of the Coordination Center of the National Council, human rights activist Leyla Yunus and the deputy chairman of the Popular Front Party, Gozel Bayramli, were sentenced to long term imprisonment despite they were seriously ill. As a result, Gozel Bayramli, who was not provided with medication for three months after her arrest, became critically ill, contracted cancer and died on October 8, 2020. Mehman Aliyev, a member of the Coordination Center of the National Council and head of the Turan News Agency, is also among those arrested on spurious charges for their public and political activities. Another leader of the National Council, human rights activist Ogtay Gulaliyev, did not give up his principled political and human rights activities despite repeated threats and warnings at the official and unofficial levels, and on October 29, 2019, he was mysteriously hit by car. As a result, Gulaliyev has not been able to wake up from a coma for more than a year. The chairman of the National Council, Professor Jamil Hasanli’s daughter was convicted of a car accident she has never committed and now his son, Ibrahim Hasanli, has not been reinstated in a secondary school in Baku after a year of study in the United States.

Ali Karimli, a member of the Coordination Center and chairman of the Popular Front Party, has not been issued a passport for 15 years and cannot leave the country, despite a ruling by the European Court. Ali Karimli, whose deputies, assistants and drivers were imprisoned on trumped-up charges, has been subjected to another unusual persecution mechanism since 13.04.2020 - Karimli was deprived of access to the Internet. His and his family's mobile phones are blocked every day and they are at reach only between 10.00 p.m. to 20.00 a.m.  Ali Karimli and Ibrahim Ibrahimli, another member of the National Council, were severely and ruthlessly tortured by police during a protest rally by the National Council on 19.10.2019. As a result of the torture, Ali Karimli's head exploded in the forehead, 9 stitches were placed on his forehead, and more than 20 serious injuries were inflicted on his body. As a result of the suffocation, Ibrahim Ibrahimli's throat tendon was broken and he lost the ability to speak for a long time. Former MP Ibrahimli's ability to speak was only partially restored after a recent surgery.

Tofig Yagublu, a member of the Coordination Center of the National Council, was prosecuted three times in criminal legislative and 33 times in administrative order, were repeatedly subjected to severe tortures for his opposition political activities. He was arrested and ruthlessly tortured while being in administrative arrest in the aftermath of a rally on October 19, 2019, and threatened by his son to be killed another lengthy imprisonment if he did not quit the National Council. Tofig Yagublu was arrested again in March 2020 as the first victim of a political persecution campaign launched by the Azerbaijani government against its political rivals, abusing the Covid-19 pandemic.

Member of the National Assembly, General of Justice Vidadi Mirkamal has been repeatedly threatened by law enforcement agencies for organizing meetings of the Coordination Center of the National Council in his country house, and there have been filthy smear and slander campaigns against him in the country's media as well.—0—