02:41, 2 July 2014

In Baku, defence of Omar Mamedov, Facebook user, states political motives of his persecution

In Azerbaijan, at the court deliberations, the defence of Omar Mamedov, a member of the "Civil Solidarity Party" and a Facebook activist, accused of illegal drug dealing, stated the political motives of the criminal prosecution of the defendant. His lawyer Alaif Gasanov said that there is no evidence of Mamedov's guilt in the case files.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Omar Mamedov, 19, who is also a co-founder of the Azerbaijani educational movement "Akhyn" (Stream), was detained on January 24 on charges of selling a large volume of drugs; he is now in custody.

According to the advocate, Mamedov is persecuted for once being one of the administrators of satirical pages on the Facebook named "Selections from AzTV" and "Named by Geidar Aliev". Besides, according to Gasanov, "the case has in many procedural violations." After detention Mamedov was not allowed to contact a lawyer, whom he trusts, the advocate has added.

Gasanov has urged the judges "to be honest, as difficult as it may be," when passing the sentence; then, he asked to acquit Mamedov.

Earlier, the spokesman of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) denied the existence of any political component in Mamedov's case.

Author: Faik Medzhid

Source: CK correspondent