Azerbaijani activist expresses his fears of extended term of imprisonment

Consideration of a complaint filed by a captain of the State Border Guard Service of Azerbaijan against Ali Aliev, the leader of the “Citizens and Development” Party, has been postponed again. Ali Aliev believes that the trial is being deliberately delayed so that at the end of the first term of punishment he will be given a new sentence.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that Ali Aliev, the chair of the opposition “Citizens and Development” Party, was accused of defamation. Lawsuits were filed by two border guards, Emil Djafarov and Ramin Adilov, who survived the helicopter crash on November 30, 2021. On January 13, the court sentenced Ali Aliev to five months of imprisonment.

In his interview to the YouTube channel “Osmanqızı TV 9”, Ali Aliev questioned the plausibility that the two border guards survived the crash, as “they didn’t even get a scratch on their faces.”

Ali Aliev believes that court hearings are being postponed in order to put pressure on him and the trial is being delayed so that at the end of the term of punishment for the first sentence, he will be given a new term and thus his prison sentence will be extended.

Advocate Agil Laidj notes that Ali Aliev can face up to six other months of imprisonment.

Rufat Safarov, the head of the “Line of Protection” NGO, considered unfounded the prosecution of Ali Aliev “only for his assumption that ran counter to the official version of the law enforcement bodies” and called it “a challenge to the right and freedom of expression guaranteed by the European Convention.”