Court hearing on the appeal by the head of the website “xeber44.com” Araz Guliyev and other religious people against Lenkoran Grave Crimes Court’s sentence was held at the Shirvan Appellation Court on September 12th under the chairmanship of the judge Kamran Akbarov.
In his statement Araz Guliyev told the court that the charges claimed against him are false.
His statement was put off to September 16th, 4 pm, because the working time ended during his speech.
Background: Araz Guliyev together with other religious people were arrested on September 8th on charges of attempting to prevent an international folklore festival in Masalli region, and causing bodily harm to ordinary people and police officers. On December 11th the previous hooliganism charge against Guliyev was replaced by five new charges, under Article 228.1 (illegal possession of fire arms), Article 233 (violation of public order), Article 283.1 (inciting national, racial, ethnic or religious animosity and hostility), Article 315.2 (resistance and violence against a representative of the authority) and Article 324 (insulting the national flag or emblem of the Azerbaijan Republic) of the Criminal Code. On April 5, 2013 the Lankaran City Grave Crimes Court sentenced Guliyev to 8 years in jail.
Araz Guliyev rejects the charges, claiming that he was arrested for his journalistic and religious activities.