Journalist Anar Abdullah taken into custody in criminal case of smuggling
A Baku court has changed the preventive measure for activist and freelance journalist Anar Abdullah, placing him under arrest in a smuggling case. Abdullah himself called the court's decision a political order.
As "Kavkazsky Uzel wrote, on May 29, the judge did not grant the defense's motion to dismiss the case of human rights activist Anar Mammadli and journalist Anar Abdullah, who are accused of several criminal charges. The court also refused to release Mammadli from custody. On July 11, Anar Abdullah was detained in Baku and arrested for 30 days in an administrative case of disobeying the police and petty hooliganism. Abdullah's associates suggested that he was arrested to force him to incriminate himself in a criminal case.
The head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center, Anar Mammadli, was detained in Baku on April 29, 2024, and arrested on charges of smuggling in the case of employees of the Abzas Media publication. Mammadli's case was later separated into a separate proceeding. On April 8, freelance journalist Anar Abdulla (Abdullayev) was summoned to the Baku police, where he was charged in Anar Mammadli's case. Then Abdullah was transferred to police supervision.
At the trial of Anar Mammadli and Anar Abdullah in the Baku Court of Grave Crimes on August 4, the prosecutor proposed to place the latter in custody, claiming that he “does not comply” with the “police supervision” regime - in particular, “he does not report to the Narimanov District Police Department of Baku in a timely manner,” the activist’s relatives told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.
Abdullah’s defense, in turn, indicated that the activist had not received any warnings from the police. In addition, Abdullah is registered as a resident in another district of Baku, Binagadi. Abdullah himself called the prosecutor’s proposal “a political order.”
The court granted the prosecutor’s motion and placed the journalist under arrest. Then the indictment was read out at the trial, both defendants pleaded not guilty, the source added.
"I do not plead guilty, the charges are fictitious. It is not at all clear what language this indictment was written in, its content is not clear," Mammadli said, in particular, as conveyed to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by his lawyer Elchin Sadigov. According to him, the lawyers of both defendants also pointed out the "incomprehensibility" of the indictment, in which some sentences take up 3-4 pages.
The next court hearing on this case is scheduled for September 22, an employee of the Baku Court of Grave Crimes told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. Representatives of the prosecution were unavailable for comment.
"Caucasian Knot" wrote that in 2012, Abdullah joined the civil movement Nida, which, in particular, held protests against non-combat losses in the army. He was first brought to administrative responsibility in May 2016, when he received 10 days of arrest. In 2018, Abdullah moved to the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center, and at the same time he began collaborating with the news site gozetci.az and other publications.
We have updated the applications on Android and IOS — now they work without VPN! We would be grateful for criticism, ideas for development both in Google Play/App Store and on KU pages in social networks. Without installing a VPN, you can read us in Telegram (in Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia - with VPN) or use the Ceno browser to bypass blocking. Using a VPN, you can continue reading "Caucasian Knot" on the website as usual, and on social networks: Facebook*, Instagram*, "VKontakte", "Odnoklassniki" and X. You can watch the video of "Caucasian Knot" on YouTube. Send messages to WhatsApp* to the number +49 157 72317856, to Telegram - to the same number or write to the address @Caucasian_Knot.
* the activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) are prohibited in Russia.