In Azerbaijan, prosecutor asks two years in prison for Bakhtiyar Gadjiev

Today, the Nizami District Court of the city of Gandzha, which is trying the youth activist Bakhtiyar Gadjiev, accused of evasion from military service, listened to the speech of the state prosecutor. The prosecutor Alexei Abbasov asked the court to sentence Gadjiev to the maximum term envisioned by this article of the Criminal Code - imprisonment for 2 years.

Mr Abbasov said that Gadjiev's guilt - in particular, his "willful" evasion from conscription, - had been proved. The state prosecutor spoke to nearly empty courtroom, since Gadjiev's advocates, as well as the members of his public support group left the room in protest against rejection of the petition to allow photo and video filming, and audio recording.

The defendant refused from his last statement.

The advocate Elchin Namazov explained the defence's boycott of the public prosecutor's speech by the fact that "since the very start the inquiry had followed the political order and failed to conduct an objective judicial investigation."

In his turn, Intigam Aliev, head of the Society of Legal Enlightenment, who coordinated Gadjiev's defence, disseminated the text of his client's pre-prepared last statement, from which he had refused in the courtroom.

Bakhtiyar Gadjiev noted in the document that "the aim of this customized case was to punish under trumped-up charges a representative of a new generation of free-thinking and educated young people, who put public interest above personal ones; and, thereby, to intimidate other young people and hamper the youth movement demanding democratic changes."

"You (the authorities) can present me to the public in handcuffs, throw me in jail, but you can't deprive me of my true freedom. Because the freedom is in human's spirit, in his spirituality, morality and mentality. These phenomena can't be arrested," Gadjiev said in his statement.

The sentencing is scheduled on May 11.