Azerbaijani oppositionist receives second refusal for CER

On May 1, a court in Baku refused to apply the conditional early relief (CER) to Fuad Akhmedli, a member of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), because of a negative opinion of the colony boss. The defence intends to appeal against this second CER denial.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in July 2018, upon the expiry of a third of Akhmedli's prison term, the court refused to apply CER to him. The reason, according to his father, was that, according to the colony bosses, the activist "failed to communicate with anyone, and once he inaccurately made his bed."

According to his father, Zafar Akhmedli, who is a member of the coordination centre of family members of political prisoners, "it is written in the characteristic that Fuad would not repent of the committed crime."

As a rule, Azerbaijani courts refuse to apply the CER procedure to activists and journalists, said Ogtai Gyulyalyev, the coordinator of the Centre for the Protection of Political Prisoners.

"Authorities impose punishments close to the maximum ones to their opponents; and they never release them ahead of time," he has stated.

"Courts are very tough to authorities' critics," Emin Guseinov, Director of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) has added.