Court refuses to release Azerbaijani journalist Fikret Faramazoglu under house arrest

On November 22, at the preparatory court hearing in the case against journalist Fikret Faramazoglu, the court dismissed the defence motions to close the criminal case and change the pre-trial restriction measure.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 2, Fikret Faramazoglu, the editor-in-chief of the news website "Jam.az" was taken into custody on charges of extortion. Fikret Faramazoglu faces sentence up to 5-10 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.

On November 22, the Baku Court of Grave Crimes chaired by Judge Eldar Mikailov held a preparatory court hearing in the case against Fikret Faramazoglu. The defender filed a motion to close the criminal case against his client.

"There are no facts to prove the commission of a criminal act by the journalist. The evidence presented by investigators is falsified. During the preliminary investigation, the rights of Fikret Faramazoglu were grossly violated. For more than two weeks, he was kept at the detention facility of the Chief Department for Combating Organized Crimes of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), in charge for the investigation. He was subjected to torture. He was not allowed to be visited by an advocate and was forced to retract his appeal," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Elchin Sadygov, an advocate of the journalist.

The defence also filed a motion with a request to change the pre-trial restriction measure against the journalist to house arrest.

The court dismissed both motions.

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