On August 5, the Baku Court of Appeal rejected the complaint against the decision to administratively arrest the adviser to the chairman of the Musavat party, Alikram Khurshidov, for 30 days. During the trial, Khurshidov stated that the case against him was falsified and that the accusation of “not obeying the police” was false.
He said that he was detained on the afternoon of July 26 at the “Icheri Sheher” metro station. However, the file says that he was allegedly detained in the village of Badamdar, when he “talked with someone on the phone with loud obscene language” and “disobeyed the demands of the police”, when they called on him to “stop swearing”.
Lawyer Karimli pointed out inconsistencies in the materials of the administrative case. “Khurshidov testified that he was detained on July 26 at 11:15 after he left the “Icheri Sheher” metro station. However, the district police inspector noted in his testimony that Khurshidov was detained at the indicated time, but in the Badamdar settlement. The distance between the metro station “Icheri Sheher” and the village of Badamdar is quite large and Khurshidov could not immediately get out of the metro to Badamdar,” the lawyer said.
The defense petitioned to request from the Baku Metro recordings from CCTV cameras at the entrance and exit of the “Icheri Sheher” station on July 26 from 10.45 to 11.25. This would confirm the words of Khurshidov about the time of his exit from the subway and at the same time would prove the falsity of the accusation, the lawyer said.
However, the appellate instance did not satisfy the petition and upheld the “illegal decision” of the court of first instance, Karimli stressed. According to him, this decision will be appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.
*Alikram Khurshidov was arrested on July 26 for 30 days in an administrative case “on disobedience to the police.” The Musavat Party called the accusation far-fetched and said that the real reason for the arrest was his exposure of the gross and unethical actions of the police after his detention on July 20 at a protest demanding the opening of the country’s land borders. The Ministry of Internal Affairs rejected these allegations and announced that Khurshidov was being held accountable for an administrative offense.