Advocates of Yunus spouses lodge complaint to Azerbaijani SC

A cassation complaint against the final decision of the Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) on the case of Leyla and Arif Yunus has been lodged today to the Supreme Court (SC), the advocate Elchin Sadygov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Leyla Yunus, the Director of the Institute of Peace and Democracy (IPD) and her husband Arif Yunus were accused of economic crimes and treason. On August 13, Leyla Yunus, was sentenced to 8.5 years of imprisonment, and Arif Yunus – to 7 years in prison. The spouses denied their guilt and declared the political nature of their case. The verdict was appealed against. On December 9, the Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) commuted the sentences for the Yunus spouses and replaced the actual terms of imprisonment with conditional sentences.

"We believe that Leyla and Arif Yunus were unreasonably and illegally brought to criminal justice. The charges of economic crimes presented to Yunus spouses are untenable. They were not engaged in commercial activities; therefore, any illegal entrepreneurship is out of question," said the advocate, who is representing Yunus' interests.

"They also could not be accused of tax evasion, because grants are not taxable. The charges of fraud are also devoid of any legal grounds. If such a crime had been committed, there should be victims in the case. However, the donors have stated that they have no claims to the defendants, and the grants had been used to the intended purpose," said Sadygov.

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