Azerbaijani Court Issues In Absentia Sentences Against Bloggers Living Abroad

On December 26, the Baku Serious Crimes Court held a final hearing in the criminal case against a group of bloggers living abroad. The session was presided over by Judge Huseyn Huseynli.

Under the in absentia verdict, lawyer and blogger Gurban Mammadov was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Other bloggers — Tural Sadigly, Suleyman Suleymanli, Ordukhan Babirov (Teymurkhan), Orkhan Agayev, Rafael Piriyev, and Elshad Mammadov — were each sentenced to nine years of imprisonment.

The defendants were charged with fraud, public calls for terrorism, disobedience to law enforcement officers, calls for an armed uprising, and forgery of official documents.

The court recognized Khagani Khalilov as the injured party in the case.

It should be noted that earlier, on December 23, the Baku Serious Crimes Court sentenced Ganimmat Zahid, editor-in-chief of Azadlıq newspaper who resides in France, to seven years in prison. On the same day, Elshad Abdullayev, rector of Azerbaijan International University, was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment.