Court Rejects Jailed Blogger’s Appeal
February 3, 2016
Baku Court of Appeal, chaired by judge Gail Mammadov, denied the appellate complaint against the sentencing of blogger Khalid Khanlarov to administrative imprisonment. Khanlarov was convicted of resisting the police and sentenced to 25 days in jail by Binagadi District Court on January 23, 2016. It is believed that the blogger was arrested for his activity on social networks.
In her courtroom speech, the blogger’s lawyer Shahla Humbatova said that prior to her client’s arrest, his mother, who lives in Gabala, had been warned by the police. She was told by the Gabala Police Department to tell her son to delete his Facebook posts.
The lawyer added that a confession had been extracted from Khalid Khanlarov at the police office through intimidation.
“Khalid was told to either agree to give a confession and receive 25-day detention sentence, or they would launch a criminal case and sentence him to 6-7 years in jail. Khalid agreed to confess,” the lawyer told the court.
Nevertheless, the court did not grant the appeal and upheld the Binagadi District Court’s decision.