Summary: Hearing 2
- Defendant Fikrat Ibishbayli’s (Faramazoglu’s) lawyer Elchin Sadigov filed a motion to conduct handwriting analysis to determine whether the signatures on the search record and on the minutes of the taking of the evidence belonged to Fikrat Faramazoglu. The motion was denied.
Baku Grave Crimes Court chaired by Judge Eldar Mikayilov held a preliminary hearing on the criminal case of Fikrat Faramazoglu, the Editor-in-Chief of the Journalistic Research Centre (jam.az) news website. Fikrat Faramazoglu was arrested on 30 June 2016, and has been charged under Article 182 (extortion) of the Criminal Code. On 2 July 2016, Narimanov District Court ordered his pre-trial detention.
Defendant’s lawyers Elchin Sadigov and Javad Javadov, public prosecutor Erkin Gafarov, and victims Mehman Hasanov, Shirin Abdullayev and Bakhshali Gahramanov were in attendance.
Defendant Fikrat Faramazoglu’s lawyer Elchin Sadigov filed a motion to conduct handwriting analysis to determine whether the signatures on the search record and on the minutes of the taking of the evidence belonged to Fikrat Faramazoglu.
Journalist’s other lawyer Javad Javadov noted that the journalist had looked at the above-mentioned documents and said the signatures did not belong to him. Therefore, the lawyer asked the court to grant the motion.
The public prosecutor, however, argued that the court had not yet made decision on the sequence of examining the evidence, and thus, the motion had to be rejected.
The victims in turn claimed that Fikrat Faramazoglu was present when the minutes were being drawn up, and so, the motion could not be granted.
The court dismissed the motion, justifying it by the fact that it had not yet decided in what sequence the evidence would be examined.
Afterwards, the presiding judge asked the injured parties whether they had financial claims against the defendant. The victims said they had. The judge gave the victims one week to submit their civil claims to the court.
The next hearing was set for December 15, 3 pm.