Azerbaijani Popular Front Party activist Fuad Ahmadli and Azadliq newspaper financial director Faiq Amirov were sentenced to another three months of pretrial detention by Nasimi District Court in Baku.
This is the second time the court has extended their pretrial detention terms. Back in January, it was again extended by two months up until March 12.
Ahmadili and Amirov were arrested last summer on charges of having links with the Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen, who currently resides in the United States and who has been accused by the Turkish government of being behind the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
Their arrest was part of a larger operation launched in August 2016 officially aimed at cracking down on Gülen’s supporters, reported the
Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
Ahmadli was detained on August 18 together with four colleagues. According to IWPR, Gülen books were seized during the search of his apartment. He was then also accused of distributing the personal data of subscribers of “Azerfon” mobile company where he worked.
Amirov was placed under arrest two days later, and was accused of ‘inciting inter-religious strife’, as a Gülen ‘representative’ in Azerbaijan.
According to Azerbaijani legislation, pretrial detention in the case of Amirov and Ahmadli is not to exceed 13 months.
Both face up to eight years in prison if convicted.
The arrests of Amirov and Ahmadli gave rise to widespread criticism both domestically and abroad, as they were considered politically-motivated by many.
Amirov and Ahmadli’s lawyer, Asabali Mustafayev, objected to the extension of their pretrial detention terms back in January.
“The prosecutor’s office has based the extension on a supposed need to further conduct the investigation. It seems that the evidence of guilt is being collected after his arrest. Fuad Ahmadli has no opportunity to influence the course of the investigation while in prison. Why is he kept in custody?”, Mustafayev told
contact.az
.
Fuad Ahmadli was put in
solitary confinement
on February 5 for three days after the smell of food warmed in his cell spread throughout the prison block.
Azerbaijani Popular Front Party is one of Azerbaijan’s largest opposition forces. Azadliq newspaper was until recently the only opposition newspaper still available in print.
