Ashurov: Azerbaijani court was wrong in rejecting Gadjizade's CER

The court's refusal to apply the conditional early relief (CER) to blogger Adnan Gadjizade, imprisoned in Azerbaijan, has no lawful grounds, as Isakhan Ashurov, Adnan's advocate, told today the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"The law allows to apply the CER after a prisoner has served half of his term; however, in practice penitentiary establishments and the Ministry of Justice hamper to enforce this provision," said the lawyer.

As to particular Gadjizade's case, the officials from Colony No. 14 had motivated their refusal by "illegal grounds." "They should be made answerable for this," said Ashurov.

Thus, the officials characterized Gadjizade as "a contradictory person." According to their version, it was demonstrated in his refusal to follow the instructions of the prison administration.

"This is an absurd statement from the viewpoint of the law. And what are their grounds to state the Gadzhizade's 'contradictory' personality? Are they psychologists?" asked Ashurov.

In the opinion of Rashid Gadjily, Director of the Institute of Media Rights (IMR), there are grounds to believe that the decision of the court was "customized".

The Garadag Court refused to make any comments on the court's decision to reject the blogger's CER, saying that "everything is written in the verdict."

The PR Department of the Penitentiary Service also refrained from comments, having noticed that "colony administrations have the right to give their independent conclusion on CER applications, while decisions are made by the courts."