20:12, 5 August 2013

Azerbaijani court rejected appeal of advocates of theologian Bagirzade

Today, the Baku Court of Appeal (CoA) has dismissed the appeal of the defence of the theologian Talekh Bagirzade against the extension of his arrest.

Djavad Djavadly, one of the advocates, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that it took just a couple of minutes for the CoA to consider the appeal.

"Unfortunately, the CoA, same as the Court of the First Instance, has found reasonable the position of the prosecution, which had motivating the need to extend the arrest by the fact that they have not yet received the results of the linguistic examination of allegedly anti-governmental public statements of Talekh Bagirzade," said Djavadly.

He added that the case of illegal possession of drugs by his client was falling apart; therefore, investigators are looking for other reasons to convict him.

In the opinion of Mirgamym Aliev, the head of the Committee for Rights Defence, Bagirzade is persecuted for political reasons, for criticizing the authorities' ban on wearing hijabs in schools and violations of other citizens' religious rights.

Author: Faik Medzhid

Source: CK correspondent