[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Khatai District Court of Baku on December 2 sentenced the leading Internet television channel Kanal-13 Rufat Muradli to 30 days of arrest. He was found guilty under Art. 535.1 (failure to comply with the lawful demands of the police) of the Code of Administrative Offences. This was reported by lawyer Nazim Musayev.
According to him, Muradly was detained on the afternoon of December 2 in a parking lot near the Nargilya cafe in the Khatai district.
Before this, Muradli went to prepare an interview with the mother of the arrested journalist Sevinj Vagifgyzy. However, the interview did not take place due to the absence of the journalist’s mother at home.
“While parking the car in the parking lot, Rufat Muradli was detained by people in civilian clothes. However, the police report presented to the court stated that “Rufat Muradli used obscene language on the street, and when the police made a “remark” to him, he did not “obey.” However, Rufat Muradli categorically rejected these allegations,” the lawyer said.
According to him, the defense asked the court to conduct the proceedings with audio and video recordings.
However, judge Sulkhana Gadzhieva refused this, citing the lack of “technical capabilities for this.”
“In that case, I suggested filming with my mobile phone. But the judge rejected that too. The court secretary did not keep minutes of the hearing during the trial. We weren’t even allowed to speak out. It was as if the decision was prepared in advance and the judge, having announced it, ended the proceedings,” the lawyer noted.
Muradly’s sister Fargana Muradova believes that her brother is being persecuted because of his journalistic activities.
“Rufat is a cultured person, an intellectual. They will never allow themselves to be rude to anyone. He is being persecuted because of his work as a journalist, his activities on Kanal-13,” said F. Muradova.
Muradli, 52, became the sixth journalist arrested in the past two weeks.
Let us recall that on November 28, the head of Kanal-13, Aziz Orujov, was arrested on criminal charges of unauthorized construction on a seized land plot.
Since November 20, the director of the online publication Abzas Media Ulvi Hasanli, the editor-in-chief of the publication Sevinj Vagifgyzy, the publication’s journalist Nargiz Absalamova, as well as Mohammed Kekalov, who collaborated with Abzas Media, were also arrested.
It should be noted that Rufat Muradli is also a member of the board of the Azerbaijan Party of Democracy and Welfare, the head of which Gubad Ibadoglu is also under arrest.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]