A prominent blogger, Mehman Huseynov, was sentenced to two years imprisonment in Baku’s Surakhani District Court earlier this afternoon.
Huseynov’s lawyer Elchin Sadigov says that his petition for a stay in the trial was not granted.
“I requested one week’s time to prepare additional evidence and investigate the matter further…however the judge only gave me half an hour. 10 minutes later he [the judge] demanded that I begin delivering evidence. . .Now he has been sentenced to two years”.
The lawyer further added that the decision will be appealed.
Huseynov was arrested in February for allegedly ‘failing to obey a police order’ and was fined 200 manat.
It is speculated that he was arrested for materials posted on his Facebook video channel ‘Sancaq’, which detail the residences of high-ranking Azerbaijani officials and highlight other social issues.
The blogger claimed he had been tortured while in detention at Nasimi District Police Station. In response, head officer of the police station Musa Musayev decided to sue him for slander and falsely accusing an individual with a serious felony.
