In Azerbaijan, journalist Mekhtiev to challenge fine imposed by court

Khyakimeldost Mekhtiev, the regional correspondent of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR), sentenced by the Sharur District Court to a fine for illegal use of electricity, intends to appeal against this decision.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 26 the Sharur District Court of Azerbaijan, chaired by Gusein Zulfugarov, sentenced Mekhtiev to a fine of 1000 manats (over 1200 US dollars).

According to Mekhtiev, at the trial the prosecution presented 11 witnesses, out of whom 9 said at the trial that during the preliminary investigation some of their evidences had been distorted. One of the witnesses confessed that he had given biased evidence at the prosecutor's office, he said.

"The court's decision is prejudiced and unfair. I'm going to challenge it at the higher instance," said Mekhtiev.

He believes that he is a victim himself, since on July 15, together with a car wash, electricity was disconnected from his house. "For 24 days, in the heat of summer, our family was left without electricity and possibility to use a refrigerator, computer and other electric devices," said Mekhtiev.

According to his story, he was persecuted because of his human rights and journalistic activities, because the charges of illegal use of electricity appeared, in his words, immediately after in early July he accompanied the journalist from the German newspaper "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" Michael Ludwig in his official visit to the NAR.

The Sharur District Prosecutor's Office and the District Court refused to give comments. The regional and local state bodies of the NAR refuse to communicate with reporters.

Earlier, the executive body of the Sharur District issued a statement asserting that Mekhtiev had illegally uses electricity in his car wash, without installing a meter.

Elman Abbasov, another regional correspondent of the IRFS, said that on July 15 Mekhtiev's house, located in the village of Djalile, was visited by Aladdin Mamedov, Deputy Head of the Sharur District, accompanied by the workers of the district grid, policemen and persons in civilian clothes. Mekhtiev colleagues - Elman Abbasov and Mekhman Mekhtiev, and Ilgar Nasibov, a reporter from the local Information Agency "Turan", - were attacked by policemen and persons in plain clothes, when they began filming the process of dismantling the electric pole.