Yunus spouses state non-transparency of their trial

The Baku Court of Grave Crimes that is trying the rights defender Leyla Yunus and her husband Arif Yunus has announced the indictment and questioned 11 witnesses. The spouses refused to plead guilty, and stated that the trial is non-transparent.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 23 the completion of the preliminary investigation of the criminal case against the Yunuses was announced. According to Elchin Gambarov, the advocate of Leyla Yunus, the accusation of the spouses of treason was isolated into a separate case; therefore, this trial is considering their charges under economic articles of the Criminal Code only.

Leyla Yunus has stated the far-fetched nature of the charges against her husband. She has treated the accusation of Arif of treason and espionage in favour of Armenia as absurd; however, these charges are not considered at this trial.

The essence of the accusation is in the fact that Leyla Yunus, while using the state registration of the NGO "Azerbaijani Women for Peace and Security in Front Caucasus", transferred grants to the bank accounts of the NGO; then, she cashed the funds; and extracted the income from her illegal entrepreneurial activities in the amount of 526,943 manats (670,000 US dollars at the exchange rate of the manat prior to the devaluation on February 21, 2015).

According to Leyla Yunus, the indictment is completely falsified; it is politically motivated and associated with her human rights work.

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