Intigam Aliev's defence states falsification of his case

Advocates of the human rights defender Intigam Aliev, who was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison, are preparing a cassation complaint to the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan. They explain that they have proofs that the charges had been falsified.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported on April 22 a Baku court found Intigam Aliev, the head of the "Society of Legal Enlightenment" (SLE) guilty of economic crimes. His advocates appealed against the verdict. On July 6, the Baku Court of Appeal dismissed the defence's appeal; and on July 21 upheld the verdict.

According to the advocate Fakhraddin Mekhtiev, investigators failed to provide sufficient evidence of Aliev's guilt at the trial. The organization, headed by Aliev, had state registration, Mr Mekhtiev has stressed.

The allegations that Aliev was implemented 13 projects without registration of grant agreements, are also untenable, said Shakhla Gumbatova, another Aliev's advocate.

The defence also denied the accusations against Aliev of tax evasion in the amount of 65,000 manats (82,500 US dollars), Elchin Sadygov, who is also defending Aliev, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Vidadi Iskenderov, the head of the NGO "Promoting Democracy", has treated the charges against Intigam Aliev as trumped-up. In his opinion, Aliev is persecuted under the standard set of charges put forward against NGO leaders.

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