In Azerbaijan, court refuses to release editor-in-chief of newspaper "Khural" from custody

Today, at the trial in the Baku Court of Serious Crimes on the case against Avaz Zeinalov, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Khural", the defence filed a motion to change his pre-trial restriction measure. However, the judge dismissed the motion and left the journalist in custody.

At the court session, held on September 26, lawyer Elchin Sadygov filed the motion to change the arrest of Avaz Zeinalov to other forms of pre-trial restriction measures, non-custodial ones. In particular, he proposed to put Avaz Zeinalov under home arrest or to release him on bail.

The lawyer has justified his position by the fact that Avaz Zeinalov represents no threat to the society, he is a well-known journalist, and he does not avoid the investigation. Besides, the lawyer pointed out to health problems of his client.

In particular, according to the lawyer, the journalist was diagnosed with "crystallization of salts in the kidneys, aggravation of osteochondrosis of spinal column, and radiculitis."

However, after a short discussion, the judge dismissed the motion. The lawyer treated the decision as "further evidence of biased judicial investigation and political nature of the case."