According to the lawyer, the majority of the presented evidence is based on statements given under pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On June 10, the lawyers of those arrested in the “Abzas Media case” made their final statements in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the court session chaired by Judge Rasim Sad\u0131xov, journalist Nargiz Absalamova’s lawyer Rovshane Rahimli stated in her defense speech that her client was arrested on political orders and baseless accusations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the lawyer, the majority of the presented evidence was either obtained through procedural violations or based on statements given under pressure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Although the protocols indicate that computers and phones were allegedly given voluntarily, the defendants informed the court that they were subjected to physical and psychological pressure and evidence was also obtained in this way. However, the court showed no interest in investigating these claims by the defendants. Yet, this very fact required a comprehensive objective investigation. Because evidence obtained illegally, especially under pressure, cannot have probative value and should be considered inadmissible as evidence.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rovshane Rahimli particularly emphasized that key witness Muhammad Kekalov retracted his statements from the investigation period in court and that these statements were given under pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawyer added that according to law, Kekalov’s statement given in court freely and without pressure should be taken as the basis. During the investigation, however, he was in an undefended position and his statement was taken under pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawyer also noted that the documents presented by the investigation were not originals, consisting only of photographs of unknown origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rahimli stated that precisely for this reason, the charges brought against Absalamova \u2013 smuggling, illegal entrepreneurship, document forgery, etc. \u2013 are not proven:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Even Muhammad Kekalov’s statement given during the preliminary investigation, but retracted during the court investigation, does not contain any concrete facts. For example, it is not clear when and how Nargiz Absalamova brought money, where she got the money from, how much money she brought, who, where and how asked her to do this? How was Muhammad Kekalov’s participation and testimony in this process \u2013 in Nargiz Absalamova’s money-bringing activities? The witnesses questioned during the court hearing also did not give statements about Nargiz Absalamova committing any criminal act.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawyer also said that the charge of “organized group” has no legal basis and that the investigation used this concept with political intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, Rovshane Rahimli stated that the evidence in the case is legally inadmissible and that Nargiz Absalamova committed no crime and was targeted for her journalistic activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“From the case materials and court investigation, only one fact is confirmed \u2013 Nargiz Absalamova committed no criminal act, her guilt and the reason for her arrest is that she collaborated with ‘Abzas Media’ to prepare critical video materials, engaged in organized journalism, and her purpose was not to commit illegality, but to expose illegalities and inform the public,” the lawyer noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawyers of those arrested in the “Abzas Media case” made their defense speeches during the June 10 session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All the lawyers stated in their speeches that all charges were fabricated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although they said they did not expect a fair verdict from the court, they requested acquittal for the defendants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The judge then gave the defendants the final word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the defendants said they would speak at the next session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only investigative journalist Hafiz Babal\u0131 made a final statement among them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next court session will continue on June 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since November 20, 2023, six employees of “Abzas Media” publication, which conducts corruption investigations in Azerbaijan \u2013 director Elnara Gasimova, his deputy Muhammad Kekalov, chief editor Sevinc Vaqifq\u0131z\u0131, reporters Nargiz Absalamova and Elnara Gasimova, investigative journalist Hafiz Babal\u0131, and in May 2024, “Azadl\u0131q” radio journalist and economist Farid Mehralizadeh were arrested within the framework of the “Abzas Media case.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All journalists were initially charged with smuggling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In August 2024, the charges against those arrested in the “Abzas Media case” were aggravated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Local and international human rights organizations consider these arrests politically motivated and call for the journalists’ release and the dropping of charges against them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
According to the lawyer, the majority of the presented evidence is based on statements given under pressure. On June 10, the lawyers of those arrested in the “Abzas Media case” made their final statements in court. In the court session chaired by Judge Rasim Sad\u0131xov, journalist Nargiz Absalamova’s lawyer Rovshane Rahimli stated in her defense […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":27245,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1047],"class_list":["post-30830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-feed","tag-editor"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30831,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30830\/revisions\/30831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}