On September 29, lawyer Agil Layijov met with Azadliq newspaper’s arrested financial director Faig Amirli. According to the lawyer, the journalist suffers from health problems.
“Faig Amirli has refused to testify before the investigating agency for the reason that the investigator asked him questions about the sale of Azadliq newspaper, the newspaper’s financial sources and the people to whom the pennames belonged, whereas we believed that those investigative actions were irrelevant to the actual charges brought against Amirli, which are illegal acting as imam and violation of the procedure for religious rites, and therefore refused,” Layijov said.
Background: Faig Amirli was arrested on 20 August 2016. Employees of the investigating authority searched his car and house, and allegedly found and seized Fetullah Gulen books from his car. According to his lawyer, wedding video cassettes were also seized during the search. Amirli is charged under Articles 283.1 (Actions aimed at the incitement of national, racial, social or religious hatred and enmity, humiliation of national dignity, as well as actions aimed at restricting the rights of citizens or establishment of the superiority of citizens on grounds of their nationality, race, social status or religion, if these acts are committed publicly or through the media) and 168.1 (Creating, managing or being part of a group, which – under the pretext of disseminating religious faiths and performing religious rites – carries out an activity that disrupts public order or harms the health of citizens or violates the rights of citizens irrespective of its form of infringement, as well as distracts citizens from performance of their duties established by law) of the Criminal Code. Nasimi District Court has ordered 3-month pre-trial detention of Faig Amirli.