Garadagh District Court has ordered the pre-trial detention of former health minister Ali Insanov for 3 months based on the motion of Garadagh district prosecutor’s office. On 24 August 2016, Ali Insanov was charged under Articles 315.2 (use of force against a representative of authority), 234.1 (possession of drugs in an amount exceeding those for personal consumption, without the intent to sell) and 317-2.1 (preparation, storage and use of prohibited objects in prisons) of the Criminal Code in Prison #13, where he was serving his jail term, and was transferred to Baku Detention Facility #1 by the decision of Garadagh District Court of August 24 to remain there until October 23.
According to Insanov’s lawyer Togrul Babayev, the investigation of the criminal case recently launched against his client is ongoing.
In its motion filed with the court, Garadagh District Prosecutor’s Office requested the choice of the measure of detention on remand against Ali Insanov for the reasons that the investigation was ongoing and, if freed, there was a probability of Insanov impeding the progress of the investigation.
By sending a written appeal to Garadagh District Court, Ali Insanov refused to attend the hearing on the selection of the measure of pre-trial detention.
According to the lawyer, Ali Insanov has called the charges filed against him ‘false and lame allegations’ brought just 9 days before the expiry of his 11-year jail sentence and aimed at preventing his release.
Togrul Babayev added that the decision on the pre-trial detention of Ali Insanov was going to be appealed.
Background: Ali Insanov was arrested on the eve of the parliamentary elections in October 2005 on charges of preparing for a coup attempt. Later this charge was replaced by economic offences. In April 2007, the former minister was convicted of bribe taking, abuse of power and several other economic offences and was sentenced to 11 years in jail. On 14 March 2013, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the former minister had not been tried fairly. Referring to that ruling, Plenum of Azerbaijan’s Supreme Court sent Ali Insanov’s case to the appeal court for review. In February 2014, Baku Court of Appeal upheld the 11-year prison sentence against Ali Insanov.