Mursaliev: Azerbaijan staged a semblance of Akhmedova's trial

The lawyers and rights defenders, questioned by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, believe that the sentence passed today to Gyulyar Akhmedova, an Azerbaijani former MP, is too lenient. According to Azad Mursaliev, a nephew of Elshad Abdullaev, they just made a visibility of trying Akhmedova.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Baku Court of Grave Crimes sentenced Gyulyar Akhmedova to three years in prison for a fraud and helping her friend Sevindz Babaeva, who was suspected of committing a crime, to go to Turkey.

Akhmedova's advocate asserts that the video materials used as proofs had been "obtained illegally" by means of a hidden camera, while the testimonies of witnesses were falsified.

According to the lawyer Muzaffar Bakhysh, the head of the Research Centre "Rule of Law Country", courts impose more stringent sentences on the articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan, imputed to Akhmedova. He believes that "the order for a lenient sentence came from the president's administration."

In the opinion of Emin Guseinov, the head of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), the sentence to Akhmedova is a manifestation of "double standards" on the part of law enforcement and judicial systems of Azerbaijan.

According to his story, the video materials made public by Abdullaev "should have become a subject of serious investigation into corruption in the higher echelons of power."