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| Believer convicted in Azerbaijan in drug and extremism case | |
| 2024-02-28 | |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [KavkazUzel] The court sentenced Azad Kerimov, board member of the Muslim Unity movement,
As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, at the end of January - beginning of February 2022, eight activists of the "Muslim Unity" movement were arrested - Elnur Jafarov, Azad Kerimov, Elshan Ragimov, Etibar Ismailov, Ruhulla Novruzzada, Mail Kerimov, Jeyhun Balashev and Rashad Aliyev. Activists linked the arrests with a new round of deterioration in Azerbaijani-Iranian relations, which followed the armed attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran. On January 27, 2022, the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran was attacked, the head of security was killed and two guards were wounded. On April 3, the countries exchanged notes of protest with accusations of propaganda between the two countries against each other. On April 6, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry declared four employees of the Iranian Embassy in Baku persona non grata, and on May 5, the Iranian Foreign Ministry in response declared the undesirability of four Azerbaijani diplomats staying in the country. On February 27, the Baku Court of Serious Crimes completed the trial of DME board member Azad Kerimov, the lawyer of the convicted person, Zibeyda Sadigova, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. According to her, Kerimov was detained on January 30, 2022 and he was charged under articles on the production, storage and distribution of religious extremist materials. “The investigation claimed that during Kerimov’s arrest, 14 grams of drugs were found in his possession, and religious extremist literature was confiscated from his house. He actually had religious literature at home. As Azad Kerimov himself said, this is quite normal, because he is a believer. He called him abnormal. presentation of ordinary religious literature as extremist. It was recognized as such only on the basis of subjective interpretations. He also rejected the accusations of using drugs. Kerimov said in court that for health reasons he does not even smoke. Would he take drugs to the detriment of his health? Accusation "The discovery of drugs on Kerimov is not supported by reliable evidence. It is based on the testimony of the police officers themselves," the lawyer said. According to her, the court eventually dropped the charge of “drug trafficking” against Kerimov and charged him with using drugs without the purpose of selling. Despite the fact that the prosecutor proposed to sentence Kerimov to eight years in prison, the court sentenced him to 3.5 years in prison, finding him guilty under Articles 234-1.1 and 167-3.1. “Of course, the sentence may seem lenient, but it is still unfair given the fact that no reliable evidence of Kerimov’s guilt was presented. An appeal will be filed against the sentence,” the lawyer said. DME press secretary Abulfaz Bunyadov called Kerimov’s sentence politically motivated. "Azad Kerimov was convicted only for being a member of the DME board, a believer. His case is of a political nature. He was arrested during another wave of repressions against believers amid tensions between Azerbaijan and Iran, which followed an armed attack in Tehran on the Azerbaijani embassy January 27, 2023. The authorities mistakenly believe that since a person is a Shiite Muslim, he “works for Iran.” But Shiism has existed in Azerbaijan for many centuries, and it began to spread when there was no modern Iranian state, much less its "of the current government. Repressions against members of Muslim Unity and believers in general do not stop. In recent days, new arrests have followed. Three people from the DME alone have been arrested. To date, the number of arrested DME members has reached 67," Bunyadov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. Azerbaijani human rights activists recognized Kerimov as a political prisoner. “Azad Kerimov was arrested in January 2022, when mass detentions of believers followed in connection with a new round of confrontation between Baku and Tehran. After the attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Iran, we began another campaign of “exposing Iranian agents.” However, after some time it became clear "that all detainees were officially charged in drug cases. Now there are about 260 political prisoners in Azerbaijan and two thirds of them are believers, including members of the DME," co-coordinator of the Union "For Freedom of Political Prisoners of Azerbaijan" Elshan Hasanov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. The Baku Serious Crimes Court confirmed information about Kerimov’s sentence. | |
| Posted by:badanov |