Nakhchivan SC mitigates penalty to businessman Gurbanov and his assistant down to conditional sentence

The Supreme Court (SC) of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR) has partially granted the appeal complaint filed by businessman Mukhammed Gurbanov and Nadir Mamedov, the husband of his daughter and his assistant, who were arrested on charges of rendering resistance to representatives of power. The SC has mitigated their sentence and replaced their imprisonment for the conditional sentence. Today, Mukhammed Gurbanov and Nadir Mamedov were released in the courtroom.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Gurbanov and Mamedov were detained after the incident on December 8, 2012, at the customs checkpoint "Sadarak" on the Azerbaijani-Turkish border. There, they were attacked, according to their version by customs officers. Initially, Gurbanov was charged under Article 315.1 (resistance to authority by force), Mamedov - under Article 315.2 (same, but with a threat to one's life and health) of the Criminal Code. Later, Gurbanov and Mamedov were also charges under Article 221.3 (disorderly conduct with a weapon or other object used as a weapon); and on February 13, the Sadarak District Court sentenced Mamedov to five and Gurbanov to four years in prison.

When considering the appeal complaint, the Supreme Court of the NAR took into account the state of health, the age and the marital status of the convicts. In particular, with account of Gurbanov's age of 60 and health problems, the court reduced his sentence from four to three years and replaced the real imprisonment for conditional one. In the case of Mamedov, the court took into account that he is the sole breadwinner of the family and has a small child, and reduced his sentence from five to two years of imprisonment and also replaced the real term for the conditional one. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Ilgar Nasibov, a local human rights activist and deputy chairman of the Nakhchivan Regional Resource Centre for Development of NGOs and democracy.

According to his version, "Gurbanov and Mamedov are satisfied with their release from custody, but they still believe that they had been unjustly arrested and convicted."

Earlier, the Customs Committee of the NAR had stated that Gurbanov and Mamedov refused to pay the customs duty and illegally demanded to receive their goods; they injured an employee of the checkpoint "Sadarak". The prosecutor's office, in its turn, claimed that Mukhammed Gurbanov and Nadir Mamedov "refused to provide the requested documents and to pay customs duty; besides, the used force against officials." Therefore, the Sadarak District Prosecutor's Office had instituted criminal proceedings against them, said the above Committee.