Ali Aliev’s advocate claims being not allowed to visit his client

For eight days already, a defender of Azerbaijani oppositionist Ali Aliev has been seeking a visit to his client in the Baku (SIZO (pre-trial prison). All these days, Ali Aliev has been denied phone conversations with his relatives, the advocate reports.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on January 13, a court sentenced Ali Aliev, the chair of the “Citizens and Development” Party, to five months of imprisonment, finding him guilty of slandering border guard Emil Djafarov. On April 15, the court pronounced a similar decision on the complaint filed by Ramin Adilov, another border guard. On May 27, it became known that Ramiz Geyushev, a former functionary of the ruling “New Azerbaijan” Party, filed a private lawsuit against Ali Aliev, accusing him of an insult. On June 7, Ali Aliev went on a hunger strike to protest against the third charge. On June 23, the Yasamal District Court pronounced the verdict against Ali Aliev in the case on Ramiz Geyushev’s complaint and increased the sentence in three cases to one year of imprisonment.

For the second week, oppositionist Ali Aliev has been deprived of the opportunity to call his relatives on the phone and talk to his defender, advocate Togrul Babaev reports. “For eight days already, Ali Aliev has not been given the opportunity to contact his family by phone. I, as the advocate, have also not been allowed to visit Ali Aliev during this period,” Togrul Babaev told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

The advocate has noted that today, Dilyara Alieva, a spouse of Ali Aliev, has appealed to the Ombudsperson in connection with the restriction of her husband’s right to phone calls. The press service for the Ombudsperson’s office has confirmed that they received an appeal from Dilyara Alieva and noted that the appeal is now “under consideration.”

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 30, 2022 at 07:05 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.