Polad Aslanov's defence appeals against verdict at Supreme Court

The defence insists on Polad Aslanov's innocence, since no reliable proofs of his espionage for Iran, the advocate has noted.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 16, 2020, the court sentenced Polad Aslanov, the editor-in-chief of the Azerbaijani Internet editions "Xeberman.com" and "Press-az.com", to 16 years in prison within the treason case. On February 1, the journalist went on a hunger strike demanding a fair trial and transfer to house arrest. But the appellate court upheld the verdict.

A cassation complaint was lodged to the Supreme Court (SC) of Azerbaijan against the decision of the appellate instance in Polad Aslanov's case, said Elchin Sadygov, his advocate. "Polad Aslanov's guilt was not proved by the court. No reliable evidence that he was engaged in espionage in favour of Iran in exchange for a monetary reward was presented. The entire charge was based on subjective assumptions and investigators' interpretations. It is also not clear what sort of secret information Aslanov had passed over to Iranians," the advocate told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 2, 2021 at 07:56 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.