In Azerbaijan, defence to appeal against sentence to oppositionist Gasanli

The sentence against Shakhin Gasanli, the head of the organizational division of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), who had been convicted to two years of imprisonment, will be challenged at the court of appeal. This was reported by Mansum Bairamov, the Gasanli's lawyer.

Shakhin Gasanli was arrested on March 31 at his friend's house in the city of Shamkir. During the search, which was conducted at the district police department, five firearm cartridges of 9 mm calibre, wrapped in paper, were removed from a pocket of his jacket.

On July 21 the Shamkir Court found Shakhin Gasanli guilty of illegal possession, carrying, and sale of firearms, its parts, ammunition, and explosives, and sentenced him to 2 years of imprisonment.

However, the lawyer called the sentence an "illegal and unjust, decided on the basis of political order". According to the lawyer, the court had not found the source of the weapons and ignored the defence's arguments that the weapons had been planted to Gasanli.

The judgment of guilt against Shakhin Gasanli has been also strongly condemned by Leila Yunus, the famous Azerbaijani human rights activist, the director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy. According to her opinion, the case against Gasanli had been completely fabricated. "This sentence is aimed at elimination of the citizens. The authorities want to keep the society constantly scared and therefore periodically bring political activists to prisons," Ms Yunus said.

She expressed her confidence that Gasanli was arrested on the days before the rally of April 2 in order to weaken the opposition's preparing to the protest rally. Leila Yunus drew attention to the fact that all 15 people, who had been arrested in connection with the rally of April 2, would be treated as political prisoners, and some of them have been already announced by the Amnesty International "prisoners of conscience".

The Prosecutor's Office of the Shamkir District denied the political background of the case against Shakhin Gasanli. A representative of the Prosecutor's Office, who preferred to remain anonymous, stated that Gasanli was arrested "not because of his membership in the PFPA, but for a certain criminal act".