Azerbaijani rights defender Intigam Aliev arrested for three months (+video)

Today, the Nasimi District Court of Baku has arrested Intigam Aliev, the head of the Legal Education Society (LES), for three months. His defence intends to appeal against it.

Intigam Aliev was summoned to the Investigating Department for Grave Crimes of the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Azerbaijan as a witness in a criminal case against a number of local and foreign NGOs. Later, he was detained as a suspect and taken to the LES office to participate in a search. At the same time, his private house was searched. At the end of the working day, Aliev was brought to the court.

According to Anar Gasymly, Aliev's advocate, his client was charged under Articles 213.1 (large-scale evasion of taxes or deposits into mandatory social insurance), 308.2 (abuse of power entailing grave consequences) and 192.2.2 (illegal entrepreneurship with extraction of large-scale income) of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code.

The lawyer Gasymly has stressed that his client had denied all the allegations, treating his arrest as a political order.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.