11:19, 10 October 2021

Baku court refuses to mitigate Elchin Mamed's punishment

Elchin Mamed. Screenshot of the video at the "Kanal13" YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmH31Q8uTdQ

A court in Baku has denied an appeal lodged by Elchin Mamed, a journalist and a human rights defender, who asked to mitigate his sentence. He treats this denial as a violation of his rights.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 7, the Azerbaijani Supreme Court (SC) refused to mitigate Mamed's verdict.

A woman from the city of Sumgait had claimed that after she turned to Mamed for legal assistance, she discovered a disappearance of her jewellery worth USD 4500. In October 2020, Mamed was sentenced to four years in prison on charges of a theft and illegal possession of weapons.

"Elchin Mamed has stated that he had spent 1.5 years in prison, that is, more than a third of his term, and he had no disciplinary punishments. He has a 68-year-old seriously ill mother, of whom he is the only son, as well as two minor children; and his family is experiencing financial difficulties," Fariz Namazly, an advocate, has stated.

The court has rejected the appeal claiming that Mamed "has not repented of what he had done."

According to Elchin Mamed, he has been "subjected to legal discrimination," the NGO "Legal Education of Sumgait Youth", where he is the head, has stated.

In April 2020, the human rights organization "Amnesty International" (AI) urged to release Mamed, claiming that he was arrested "on trumped-up charges" after he published a critical material about the human rights situation in Azerbaijan.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 9, 2021 at 09:35 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Faik Medjid

Source: CK correspondent