22 January 2016, 14:55
Ismayilova's advocate states violation of her rights in colony
On January 21, Fariz Namazly, an advocate of Khadija Ismayilova, visited his client in the women's colony No. 4 in the territory of Azerbaijan. However, the prison officials did not allow him to carry in the documents related to communication on three Ismayilova's complaints to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
On September 1 the Baku Court of Grave Crimes convicted Ismayilova and sentenced her to 7.5 years in prison. The journalist was found guilty of illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion, misappropriation, embezzlement and abuse of power. The defence appealed against the sentence. On November 25, the Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) dismissed the complaint of Khadija Ismayilova and upheld the verdict of guilty.
"We had planned to discuss these materials with Khadija Ismayilova in order to draft answers to the ECtHR. However, prison officials demanded from me to provide notarized translations of documents from English into Azerbaijani. We need no translations, because Khadija speaks English. And that the staff want to get acquainted with the materials is an unlawful demand," Fariz Namazly told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
He treated the actions of the prison staff as a violation of the confidentiality of Ismayilova's correspondence in the interests of her defence, as well as of her communication with an advocate.
He intends to appeal to the bosses of the Prison Service with a demand request to remove the obstacles to Ismayilova's studying the documents related to her complaints to the ECtHR.
The advocate has added that if the rights of his client are not restored, the defence will appeal to the court.
Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.
Author: Faik Medzhid Source: CK correspondent
