The Surakhani District Court considered the appeal of the imprisoned human rights activist and journalist Elchin Mammad to replace the remaining prison term with a lighter sentence. The court chaired by Judge Elnur Nuriyev dismissed the human rights defender’s complaint, the press service of the Society for Legal Education of Youth of Sumgayit, which is headed by Mammad.
Elchin Mammad has been in prison for almost two years and has already served 1/3 of the sentence.
He asked the court to replace the remaining prison term with a suspended sentence or to transfer him to a jail-settlement. The lawyer drew attention to the fact that Mammad followed the rules of the regime in the penitentiary, and no disciplinary measures were applied to him.
In addition, Mammad’s 68-year-old mother is seriously ill and needs the care of her only son. Two young children of the human rights activist were also left without care. However, the Surakhany District Court, on the basis of the conclusion of the penitentiary institution, refused to mitigate the punishment.
The correctional institution indicated that although Elchin Mamed “did not commit any violations during this period, he did not plead guilty to the charges.”
However, this argument, according to the defense, contradicts the requirements of the law and the previously announced legal position on this issue of the plenum of the Supreme Court. Elchin Mamed will appeal this decision of the local court.
Mammad believes that he was subjected to legal discrimination, since over the past three months, more than 80 inmates of jail N 16, where he is serving a sentence, were released early.
On October 17, 2020, the Sumgayit City Court sentenced Elchin Mammad, the head of the Legal Education of Sumgayit Youth NGO and the editor of the “Yukselish Namine” website, to 4 years in prison, having found him guilty of “theft” and “illegal storage of ammunition and weapons” …
The human rights defender was arrested in March 2020. A woman to whom he provided legal assistance complained about him. The previously mentioned woman also complained about the editor of the website criminal.az Anar Mammadov.
Mammad believes that he has been convicted because his human rights activities. International organizations Amnesty International, PEN, FİACAT and others condemned the arrest of Mammad. Local human rights activists recognized him as a political prisoner.