08:58, 1 June 2019

Court upholds verdict to Azerbaijani journalist Nureddin Ismailov

A gavel. Photo: Fyodor Obmaykin / Yugopolis

The Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) has upheld the conviction of Nureddin Ismailov, the editor-in-chief of the "Teref.az" website, – 5.5 years of conditional imprisonment within the case of anti-state appeals. The defence finds the BCA's decision to be unjustified.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Ismailov was accused of anti-state appeals after his website reposted articles criticizing bosses of the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) "Azerenergy" in connection with the last year's July blackout.

On July 3, 2018, an accident occurred at the Mingachevir CPHP (combined power and heat plant), after which all of Azerbaijan was left without electricity for several hours. On the same day, due to a new accident at the plant, another massive blackout occurred in Baku and several regions of the country.

"The case has no legal grounds. We just reposted these articles from other media; there were no anti-state appeals in them. It was simply stated that according to the law, civil servants have no right to conduct business, while the "Azerenergy", although being an OJSC, by 100% of stock belongs to the state," Mr Ismailov has explained.

In his opinion the consideration of the appeal at the BCA was biased.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 31, 2019 at 09:09 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Faik Medjid

Source: CK correspondent