Court rejects all motions of Ismayilova's defence

Khadija Ismayilova, a journalist of Radio Liberty in Azerbaijan has attempted to disqualify the entire court that is considering her case; however, her motion was left unconsidered. Ismayilova treats the charges against her as absurd. In the course of the session, the court has rejected all the petitions, put forward by her and her defence.

On August 18, like on the previous days, the access of observers to the courtroom was restricted. Aiten Mamedova, a correspondent of the oppositional newspaper "Azadlyg", who managed to attend the trial, told about what happened in the courtroom.

According to her story, at the session Ismayilova said that she had prepared a letter to Makhmud Nabiev, the Chairman of the Baku Court of Grave Crimes, stating that the chairing judge Ramella Allakhverdieva is running the trial "too hastily".

Further, Ismayilova stated a challenge to the whole staff of the court, motivating it by the fact that the judges are biased and reject all defence's motions.

She also petitioned to summon the journalists Elchin Zakhirov and Ramal Guseinov, who work for Azerbaijani mass media, as additional witnesses.

Fariz Namazly, her advocate, has noted that "once again, the defence has faced a blatant prejudice of the court."

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