Today the Sumgayit Court of Appeal today rejected complaint of blogger and reporter Jamil Mammadli and upheld the sentence of the Khachmaz District Court, which sentenced him to 1.5 years of corrective labor.
It should be reminded that the journalist was convicted at the suit of the head of the Executive Power of the Guba region Ziyaddin Aliyev.
The head of Guba accused Mammadli under Article 147.2 of the Criminal Code (slander in the commission of a serious crime) of the Criminal Code.
The subject of the lawsuit was Mammadli’s video materials on his youtube channel “Modern period of ancient Guba”, “Phaeton swindle of a beggar”. It was stated in the publications that the executive branch embezzles funds from persons who receive social assistance.
According to a report by the Media Rights Group, both the blogger himself, who insisted on his acquittal, and a private prosecutor, who demanded that Mammadli be given a heavier punishment, filed an appeal. However, the Court of Appeal rejected both appeals.
The blogger’s lawyer, Neymat Karimli, pointed out that bringing a journalist to justice is not acceptable. According to Karimli, Mammadli did not commit slander against a private prosecutor. In his publications, it was claimed that the funds provided for the remuneration of low-income citizens temporarily involved in landscaping work were misappropriated.
Mammadli’s video was based on the testimony of more than 200 citizens, according to whom funds were issued and then appropriated by the district authorities in their names. According to the lawyer, the court refused to hear these persons as witnesses.
The defense will now file an appeal to the Supreme Court. Mammadli works as a freelance reporter. In the past, he was a regional correspondent for Radio Azadlyg.