According to the lawyer, Afgan Mukhtarli made a speech at the hearing.
“They are discriminating against me at the detention centre. They have restricted my right to phone my relatives. They do not allow me to meet with my relatives, either. This all proves that I have been arrested groundlessly,” Mukhtarli told the court.
The lawyer also noted that Mukhtarli had called the court’s attention to his health problems and asked for the annulment of the decision to prolong his detention term, but the jury rejected his appeal and upheld Nasimi District Court’s decision to extend the journalist’s detention term until 20 December.
Background: Journalist Afgan Mukhtarli was inexplicably brought from Tbilisi to Azerbaijan on 29 May 2017 . EUR 10,000 was put into the journalist’s pocket in the process.
The authorities in Baku have officially stated that the journalist was detained while crossing the border into Azerbaijani territory and at that time he resisted the law enforcement officers. Mukhtarli is charged with resistance to a government representative, crossing the state border illegally and smuggling.