The judge interrupted Jafar Mirzayev’s last words several times
The trial of another political activist, arrested shortly after being deported from Germany to Baku under the readmission procedure, has ended. On January 16, Jafar Mirzayev was sentenced at the Baku Serious Crimes Court. According to the verdict presided over by judge Javid Huseynov, he was sentenced to six years in prison.
It is claimed that about 6 grams of drugs were found on Mirzayev, and the judge argued that he acquired and transported the drug for sale.
Jafar Mirzayev, speaking his last words before the verdict, emphasized that this accusation was false:
“My lawyer justified the accusation against me from a legal point of view. I want to say a few words from my heart to the prosecutor. The prosecutor knows that this accusation is slander. Mr. Prosecutor, that’s why you felt guilty when you spoke…”
At this point, the judge interrupted the activist: “Keep your last words short. Who has a conscience, who doesn’t save the scales for later…”
Mirzayev insisted on saying his opinion and the judge intervened again: “Respect yourself…”
After that, the indicted spoke about the drug charges. Emphasizing that the accusation is defamation, he drew attention to what was written about the purpose of the sale:
“The accusation cannot be based on assumptions. First, I didn’t have drugs. Secondly, on what basis do they say that it was for the purpose of sale? Cell phone calls and text messages have turned up nothing. What is proof of sale? Why didn’t they go and search our house? Because they put it in my pocket, they know that nothing can happen at home. When I was in the store, they caught me by force. The store had surveillance cameras. Why didn’t the body leading the investigation take them? Why didn’t they discover the source of the drugs?”
He added that he was punished for his posts on social media about official arbitrariness, and for his participation in protests related to political prisoners in Azerbaijan while he was in Germany. A few minutes after the last word, the verdict was announced.
Jafar Mirzayev was deported from Germany to Azerbaijan in November 2021 and was arrested in January 2022. He is one of six political activists detained shortly after being deported from Germany between October 2021 and now. Most of those arrested have been charged with drug trafficking. Among them are Pünhan Karimli, Malik Rzayev, Samir Ashurov, and others.
None of these political activists claim to be guilty, they state that the drug charge is an absurdity, that they were punished for their criticism on social networks, for their participation in protests related to the political prisoner problem and human rights violations in Azerbaijan while they were in Germany.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs declared that these opinions are unfounded and that they were arrested for a specific crime.
