09:58, 7 March 2022

Baku court overturns verdict to lawyer Ilham Aslanoglu

The court has terminated the criminal prosecution of Ilham Aslanoglu, an Azerbaijani lawyer, convicted on charges of libel, and released him from custody. The father of the deceased military abandoned his claims against Aslanoglu because of the revelations in the "Terter case", the convict himself has explained.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 28, 2022, Aslanoglu was sentenced to five months of arrest on charges of slander. Aslanoglu was unlawfully found guilty because he had not expressed his position, but was only the presenter of the programme, in which the accusations were spoken out, his advocate has explained.

Activists believe that Ilham Aslanoglu is being persecuted for exposing the crimes committed by militaries against their colleagues as part of the so-called "Terter case". Aslanoglu is known for his statements on the Internet; and because of the above revelations, he was expelled from the Azerbaijani Bar Association, Namizad Safarov, a human rights defender, and an Ilham Ilhamoglu's son have stated.

Aslanoglu has stressed that he will continue his human rights activities.

Let us remind you that in 2017, a group of Azeri militaries and civilians was arrested in Baku on charges of collaborating with Armenian special services and preparing sabotage acts against the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD). Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe indicated that more than 200 militaries fell victim to torture during the investigation; 11 of them died.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 7, 2022 at 02:47 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Faik Medjid

Source: CK correspondent