Court sentences two Azerbaijani IDPs to imprisonment

Two internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the Jebrail District of Azerbaijan, arrested after a protest action against the electricity cut-off in villages and towns for IDPs, are sentenced to 1.5 years of imprisonment. Three other defendants are sentenced to conditional sentences and released in the courtroom.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 22, 2016, law enforcers dispersed the IDPs on protest, who demanded to free them from paying for electricity. As a result, nine policemen were injured, and on the other day, the IDPs were granted a deferment for covering their debts. Protesters Jalal Guliev, Zaur Feiruzlu, and Gyulaga Almamedov were detained on December 22, and Ulvi Guliev and Ilkin Iskenderov on December 24.

On August 18, the court pronounced the verdict against five IDPs from the Jebrail District. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Elchin Sadygov, an advocate of four defendants.

The court found the defendants guilty on all charges, but took into account their mitigating circumstances, including the absence of earlier criminal records and the status of internally displaced persons. Gyulaga Almamedov, Ilkin Iskenderov, and Jalal Guliev were sentenced to 1.5 years of conditional sentence, and they were released in the courtroom. Other two defendants, Ulvi Guliev and Zaur Feiruzlu, were sentenced to 1.5 years of imprisonment, the advocate reported.

"Of course, the verdict is relatively mild: three defendants were released, two others were sentenced to 1.5 years of imprisonment and they had already served half of their sentence, since they stayed in custody during the preliminary investigation and trial. Nevertheless, we believe that those people are not guilty of anything, since they protected their rights. Investigators did not prove that they had inflicted physical and material damage to the policemen," Elchin Sadygov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

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