15:46, 6 May 2015

Defence appeals against sentence to Rasul Jafarov

Rasul Jafarov. Photo by Aziz Karimov for the "Caucasian Knot"

In Azerbaijan, Rasul Jafarov's advocates have filed an appeal against his conviction, asking to acquit the rights defender.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Rasul Jafarov, the coordinator of the campaign "Art for Democracy", was detained on August 2, 2014. On April 16, the Baku Court of Grave Crimes found Rasul Jafarov guilty of illegal entrepreneurial activities, tax evasion, abuse of office, fraud, embezzlement on a large scale and sentenced the human rights defender to six years and six months of imprisonment in a common-security penal colony. Jafarov believes the charges are politically motivated.

Today, the advocates lodged their appeal against the verdict to the Baku Court of Grave Crimes.

According to Alibaba Rzaev, one of them, at the Court of Appeal (CoA), the defence will insist on a partial repeated judicial investigation.

Earlier, in the context of Jafarov's conviction, international human rights organizations called on European leaders to boycott the opening ceremony of the European Games in Baku, if by that time all the country's political prisoners were not released. Jafarov's conviction was criticized by the US State Department and the PACE.

See the "Guide" section of the "Caucasian Knot", where you can find the material "Prosecution of human rights defenders and civil society activists in Azerbaijan".

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

Author: Faik Medzhid

Source: CK correspondent