11:56, 15 June 2021

Twelve Baku protesters sentenced to conditional terms

A spontaneous march in support of the Azerbaijani Army on July 14, 2020. Photo by Aziz Karimov for the "Caucasian Knot"

The court has found the participants in the unsanctioned march on July 15, 2020, in Baku, including four members of the presidium of the oppositional Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), guilty of violating the public order, using force against policemen and causing minor bodily harm.

The march in support of the Azerbaijani Army ended in clashes with the police. In total, 37 people were involved as accused, including 16 PFPA members.

"None of the defendants has pleaded guilty. Some of them, for example, Mamed Ibragim and Fuad Gakhramanly, didn't attend the action at all. Others, according to their stories, committed no illegal actions to damage the parliament building," Tezekhan Miralamli, a member of the human rights organization "Defence Line", has stated.

One of the convicts, Fuad Gakhramanly, stated that the criminal case had been fabricated with the aim to accuse the PFPA of an attempted putsch.

The verdict was expected, said Elshan Gasanov, the head of the Centre for Monitoring Political Prisoners. "After the autumn war and the liberation of the territories, it was absurd to try the people who demanded the restoration of the country's integrity. However, given our realities, no acquittal should have been expected," he has noted.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 14, 2021 at 03:01 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Faik Medjid

Source: CK correspondent