In Azerbaijan, Supreme Court upholds verdict to two journalists

On December 9, the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan, presided by Judge Ilham Dzhafarov, considered the cassation complaint of three journalists of the "Nota" newspaper convicted for slander. The complaint was denied.

Sardar Alibeili and Faramaz Allakhverdiev (also known as Faramaz Novruzoglu), editor-in-chief and the main consultant of the paper, respectively, had been sentenced by the Baku Appeal Court to 3 months of imprisonment. Another employee of the newspaper - Ramaz Tagiev - was sentenced to 6 months of corrective works.

Elchin Sadygov, Alibeili's advocate, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the Supreme Court judge rejected his petition to have the editor-in-chief present at the consideration. His decision to uphold the verdict of the Baku Appeal Court was made in the absence of the defendants.

The lawyer believes it unfair and does not exclude his appeal against the decision of the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan at the European Court on Human Rights.

In their turn, the office of the Supreme Court has reported that the judge has the right to consider the case without defendants. "The point is that the Supreme Court does not hold any judicial investigation. When considering a cassation complaint, they just check how correctly the legislation provisions were applied to particular persons and give the legal estimate," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by telephone by an employee of Supreme Court office, who preferred not to name himself.