Azerbaijani rights defender Arif Yunus to stay under arrest until March 5

Today, in Azerbaijan, the Nasimi District Court has extended for four months the arrest of Arif Yunus, a staff member of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD). The defence treats the Court's decision groundless and intends to appeal against it. Besides, the advocate of Arif Yunus has filed a motion to change the pre-trial restriction measure against his client to house arrest.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Arif Yunus, who was engaged in the IPD in studying the problems of conflictology and migration, was detained on August 5. Several days earlier, on July 30, his wife Leyla Yunus, the Director of the "Institute for Peace and Democracy" (IPD) was detained in Baku. At present, she is under arrest. The Yunus spouses are charged with a number of articles, including "Treason". Arif and Leyla Yunus refuse to plead guilty. The organization "Amnesty International" (AI) has recognized the Yunus spouses as "prisoners of conscience".

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has been told by advocate Khalid Bagirov that today, the Nasimi District Court has considered the request of the Investigating Department for Serious Crimes of the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan to extend the arrest of Arif Yunus for other 4 months.

According to the advocate, the rights defender himself did not speak much at the court session.

"Arif Yunus has said that the criminal case against the spouses is fabricated and politically motivated and that regardless of his statements at trial, the judge will make a decision to extend the arrest," said Khalid Bagirov.

As a result, according to the advocate, the judge announced his decision to extend Arif's custody until March 5, 2015.

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