“By depriving me of access to a lawyer to defend my case in Turkey, Azerbaijani court and prosecutor’s office cause damage to national interests,” said the arrested journalist Rauf Mirkadirov in a statement publicized through his lawyer on June 10.
Lawyer Elmar Suleymanov visited the journalist in detention center of the Ministry of National Security yesterday. Although the journalist had no complaints about detention conditions or health problems, he was outraged by yesterday’s court decision that dismissed his request for a meeting with public notary in order to certify his power of attorney granted to Turkish lawyers.
Through his lawyer Mirkadirov stated that the court’s refusal of his access to a lawyer in Turkey was “an unprecedented event in Council of Europe region.”
“I want to note that the prosecution and the judge who did not allow my participation in the trial, made this decision at the time when Azerbaijan presides over the Committee of Ministers of Council of Europe, and on the eve of the visit of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to Strasbourg to take part in the next session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,” reads the statement.
Mirkadirov believes that the Prosecutor General’s and the judge’s decisions should be reviewed from the viewpoint of Azerbaijan’s national interests, and should be properly assessed.
Note that Rauf Mirkadirov, correspondent of Baku-based Zerkalo newspaper, was arrested by MNS employees on April 19 after being deported to Baku from Turkish capital city Ankara where he had been living since 2010. He is charged under Article 274 (treason) of the Criminal Code. Nasimi district court has ordered him to serve 3 months of pretrial detention.