CoA leaves Faig Amirov in custody

The complaint lodged by Faig Amirov, the Financial Director of the "Azadlyg" newspaper, about the extension his custody, has been dismissed.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Faig Amirov was detained on August 20 and accused of inciting religious hatred and encroachment on citizens' rights under the pretext of administering religious rites. On November 11, the Nasimi Court extended the Amirov's arrest till January 12, 2017. His defence has appealed against this judgement.

On November 21, the complaint was considered at the Baku Court of Appeal (CoA), chaired by Judge Aflatun Gasymov. "We petitioned to change his custody for house arrest, arguing that the articles of the Criminal Code, incriminated to Amirov, were unjustified; no investigative actions were conducted; and the state of health of my client is poor, as he suffers from a stomach disease, and lost 20 kilos of his body weight during his arrest. However, the judge chose to stay in solidarity with the prosecutor Sattar Rzaev, who just told him 'not to uphold the complaint,' without giving any reasons," Fakhraddin Mekhtiev, an Amirov's advocate, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to his story, the defence will challenge the legality of the CoA's judgement at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

Let us remind you that Faig Amirov is on the list of 166 political prisoners compiled by the Institute for Peace and Democracy, the Public Alliance "Azerbaijan without Political Prisoners" and the Monitoring Centre of Political Prisoners' Rights.

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