Azerbaijani court denies early relief of "Azadlyg" editor

Reshad Gasanov, Judge of the Azizbek District Court of Baku, has refused to replace the imprisonment of Ganimat Zakhidov, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Azadlyg" (Freedom) for a more lenient punishment, not related to deprivation of liberty. The respective petition of Zakhidov's advocates was considered on September 18 at the travel session of the court held at Penitentiary Establishment No. 17, where the editor-in-chief is serving his term.

Mr Zakhidov himself refused to petition, finding it "obviously useless." Therefore, the petition was lodged by his advocate Elchin Sadygov and Alaif Gasymov.

Mr Sadygov explained in his conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that according to the legislation after serving 1/3 of the terms a convict can have his or her punishment replaced by a more lenient continuation; Zakhidov's term is counted from November 2007.

The advocates asked the court to take into account Ganimat Zakhidov's higher education, his permanent job, marital status, positive characteristics of the neighbours, and appoint corrective works for the rest of the term. However, the judge rejected the advocates' petition.

"We'll get up to the European Court on Human Rights. This should be assessed at the international level," said one of Zakhidov's advocates in his comments on the court decision.