Defence of Anar Mamedli treats his transfer to colony outside Baku as biased

Anar Mamedli, the head of the Centre for Monitoring Elections and Democracy Training in Azerbaijan, has health problems in the colony, where he was transferred from the Baku SIZO (pre-trial prison) after the court rejected his appeal against the conviction, said Anar's father. The decision to transfer Mamedli to a colony remote from Baku is biased, said his advocate.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 26 a court in Baku convicted the head of the CEMDT Anar Mamedli and two other activists – Bashir Suleimanly and Elnur Mamedov. All the three were charged with tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship, abuse of office, embezzlement and service forgery. Mamedli, in particular, was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison.

"While at SIZO, Anar suffered from pains in his eyes, legs and stomach. The same problems are observed now," said Anar's father Asef Mamedli.

The father has added that Anar has no complaints about his custody conditions. "But at the same time, Anar spoke about the unfavourable location of Colony No. 13 from the ecological viewpoint. It is known that there are stone quarries around, which results in increased concentration of dust in the air," said Asef Mamedli.

Fariz Namazly, the advocate of Anar Mamedli, also pointed to the unfavourable location of Colony No. 13.

"Firstly, it is an old colony, where custody conditions fail to meet the European penitentiary standards. Besides, it is the most distant colony within the boundaries of the administrative-territorial unit of the Greater Baku. We believe that the decision to place Mamedli to Colony No. 13 was biased," said the lawyer Namazly.

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