On May 13, the trial on the case of Anar Mammadli the head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center, Bashir Suleymanli, the executive director of EMDS, and the head of the partner NGO Elnur Mammadov continued with witness testimonies in Baku Court on Grave Crimes. The process was presided over by Judge Rauf Aliyev.
Based on the motions by the defense, new witnesses were questioned during the hearing.
Expert in forensic accounting of the Ministry of Justice gave testimony. This was the expert who gave an opinion during preliminary investigation, based on inspection documents. The expert in his testimony noted that the opinion given by him was based on the materials by the investigation.
Other witnesses in their testimonies stated that they participated in the projects of EMDS and Volunteers International Cooperation Public Union and got their salaries on time. There had been no violation of the law in that respect.
The process will continue on May 14, at 2 pm.
Note that Anar Mammadli, head of the NGO EMDS, was detained on 16 December 2013, on charges of running business without registration, tax evasion and abuse of office by influencing election results. He was sent to pretrial detention straight away, while the two other accused, EMDS executive director Bashir Suleymanli and Volunteers International Cooperation public union director Elnur Mammadov were prohibited to leave Baku until trial. On March 19, the accused faced additional charges of service forgery and appropriation of property.
Amnesty International has recognized Mammadli as a prisoner of conscience. Numerous local and international rights groups have called for his release.