Azerbaijan: Leyla Yunus' cellmate demands to punish Leyla's advocate

In Azerbaijan, Nuriya Guseinova, a cellmate of rights defender Leyla Yunus, which is kept at the Baku SIZO No. 1 (pre-trial prison), has filed a claim of a private criminal charge against advocate Alaif Gasanov.

Nuriya Guseinova asks to bring the advocate to criminal liability under the article on insult. According to the statement of claim, in his interview to the newspaper "Azadlyg" published in the issue of September 17, Alaif Gasanov called Nuriya Guseinova "a criminal and a recidivist" and thus violated her presumption of innocence.

The advocate himself believes the claim is unfounded. "I never violated the presumption of innocence of this woman. And, moreover, I never insulted her. She has an earlier criminal record, and at present, the term of her sentence has not been served yet, that is, there is legally effective verdict of guilty against her," the advocate has explained.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Leyla Yunus was detained on July 30 in Baku and charged, together with her husband Arif Yunus, under several articles, including treason. Her advocate informed that the human rights defender complained about ill-treatment by her cellmate and a wardress of the SIZO.

On September 27, Leyla Yunus wrote an open letter to advocate Alaif Gasanov, in which the rights defender stated that her cellmate was used to remove the advocate from the case.

"It hurts me, when I am writing this letter, I feel so bad that you became a victim when the ruling regime started the process to destruct me. You gave publicity to the facts that the criminal recidivist subjected me to torture and abuse. It is clear that the ruling regime uses this criminal recidivist against you by arranging her complaining to the court," states the letter written by rights defender Leyla Yunus.

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