The court refused to transfer Anar Mammadli to house arrest
The Baku Court of Grave Crimes has rejected the defense's motions to place the head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center, Anar Mammadli, under house arrest and to exclude evidence obtained from his phone and computer from the case.
As "Caucasian Knot" reported, on May 19 it became known that Anar Mammadli had been charged with new charges, and the case was referred to court. The defense insists on Mammadli's innocence. On May 29, the judge rejected the defense's motion to dismiss the case of human rights activist Anar Mammadli and journalist Anar Abdulla, who are accused of several criminal offenses. The court also refused to release Mammadli from custody.
The head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center, Anar Mammadli, was detained in Baku on April 29, 2024, and arrested on charges of smuggling in the case of employees of the Abzas Media publication. Later, Mammadli's case was separated into a separate proceeding. His arrest was extended until May 26. On April 8, freelance journalist Anar Abdulla (Abdullayev) was summoned to the Baku police, where he was charged in Anar Mammadli's case. He was transferred to police supervision.
A court hearing was held in the Baku Court of Grave Crimes on the case of the head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center Anar Mammadli and public activist Anar Abdullayev.
The panel of judges chaired by Aygun Gurbanova did not grant the motion to mitigate Anar Mammadli's preventive measure and transfer him to house arrest, Meydan TV reports.
The motion to exclude evidence taken from Anar Mammadli's phone and computer from the case materials was also not granted.
The next hearing is scheduled for July 7.
Recall that six employees of the online publication Abzas Media were arrested on charges of currency smuggling due to 40 thousand euros found in the editorial office. Later, they were charged with new economic crimes under seven articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. On June 20, journalists and employees of Abzas Media were sentenced to terms ranging from 7.5 to 9 years. In court, they rejected the charges, emphasizing that they were being persecuted for their professional activities and investigation of corruption cases. You can read about who the high-profile anti-corruption investigations of the publication were dedicated to in the "Caucasian Knot" reference "Why Abzas Media did not please the authorities of Azerbaijan".
Journalists from other media outlets, including Meydan TV, Toplum TV and Kanal-13, were also persecuted. You can read about this in the "Caucasian Knot" reference "Serial arrests of journalists in Azerbaijan".
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Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/412707