Court upholds verdict in "Nardaran case"

The Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) has upheld the verdict in the case of the riots in the village of Nardaran, which involves Talekh Bagirzade, the leader of the movement "Muslim Unity", and 17 other people. The court has pronounced the decision in the absence of the advocate who treated that as a violation of the defendants' rights to defence.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 25 a court in Baku sentenced Bagirzade, the leader of the "Muslim Unity" movement, and his 16 supporters, accused of riots in the village of Nardaran, as well as the deputy chairman of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), to 10-20 years in imprisonment.

According to Fariz Namazly, an advocate of Talekh Bagirzade and three other sentenced defendants, during the final session of the BCA held on July 20, the final speeches were delivered by the defendants themselves.

"Agil Ismayilov, Djakhad Babakishizade, and Fuad Gakhramanly spoke one after another. However, every time they started criticizing the country's authorities, the judge interrupted them and demanded not to make 'political statements' and after that he interrupted their final speeches and gave the floor to public prosecutor. The interruption provoked the defendants' indignation, and they began to throw in protest shoes and plastic bottles of water of their iron cage in direction of judges. The judges left the courtroom in a hurry. Staff members of the court secretariat told us that there would be no session today, and we, the advocates, left the court building," said Fariz Namazly.

However, according to the advocate, late in the evening on July 20, the defenders got the information that the Court ruled out the decision and left the verdict unchanged.

"None of the advocate attended the pronouncement of the court's decision. This is a gross violation of the right to defence," said Fariz Namazly.

According to him, the defence will file a cassation appeal to the Supreme Court (SC) of Azerbaijan.

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