On May 18th, Binagady District Court under judge Tarlan Akbarov held a preparatory hearing on the case of Iranian Sahar TV correspondent to Azerbaijan Anar Bayramli.
His lawyer Anar Gasimov reported to the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety. According to the lawyer, he filed petitions to the court: ”The pre-trial detention term of Anar Bayramli is going to end in a few days. My first petition was about his release. Secondly, his detention report shows that he was arrested in front of his house on February 17th 9:30pm. But in fact, he was invited to the police station at about 6 or 7pm. We filed a petition to enable the participation of Bayramli’s family members as witnesses.”
The judge noted that the petitions will be considered once the hearing is opened. He scheduled the case for May 24th 11:30am.
Anar Bayramli was detained on February 17th by officers from Binagadi Police Office #4, who reportedly found 0.0387 gram of heroin in his pockets. He was charged under article 234.1 of the Criminal Code (illegal manufacturing, purchase, storage, transportation, transfer or selling of narcotics, and psychotropic substances). He is currently being held in Kurdakhani Investigative Prison.