A court in Ganja ruled that the ban on Gakhramanov's contact with his family was legal.

The Ganja City Court upheld the investigator's decision to ban lawyer Zabil Gahramanov from communicating with his family. The defense called the restriction of the arrested man's rights unfounded and illegal.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on October 25, the Ganja City Court remanded Zabil Gahramanov in custody for three months. The appellate court upheld this decision. Gahramanov's colleagues considered the case politically motivated.

Zabil Gahramanov, who is being held in Pre-trial Detention Center No. 2 in Ganja, has faced restrictions on his family contact: he is prohibited from having visits or phone calls with his loved ones. The decision was made by Rashad Suleimanov, an investigator with the city's main police department, a relative of the arrested lawyer told a Caucasian Knot correspondent.

The lawyers appealed the ban, and the complaint was heard on November 14 in the Ganja City Court, which upheld the decision, Gakhramanov's lawyer, Saadat Seyidli, told a Caucasian Knot correspondent.

Communication with family is one of the fundamental rights of an arrested person.

The defense considers the court's decision "unfair and biased" and intends to appeal, the lawyer said. "It is unclear from the investigator's ruling on what grounds Zabil Gakhramanov's right to visits and telephone conversations was restricted. Communication with family is one of the fundamental rights of a prisoner, and there must be very serious reasons for restricting it. Unfortunately, the court also did not deem it necessary to justify its decision," she noted.

Seyidli noted that, according to Article 19 of the Law on the Rights and Freedoms of Persons Held in Places of Detention, an arrested person has the right to meetings and telephone conversations not only with their close relatives but also with other persons if such communication is in their interests.

According to the same law, an arrested person is guaranteed the right to one visit per week lasting four hours and two telephone conversations per week of 15 minutes each. According to Article 19.8 of the same law, an arrested person's visits and telephone conversations may be restricted by the investigation or the pretrial detention facility administration for a certain period "in order to prevent a crime being prepared and to ensure the safety of the criminal prosecution and the persons involved."

"However, this decision must be substantiated by specific arguments." "In Zabil Gakhramanov's case, there are absolutely no grounds for applying the exception provided by law," the lawyer emphasized.

Another of Gakhramanov's defense attorneys, attorney Nazim Musayev, noted that investigators often abuse the law and unreasonably restrict the rights of detainees to visits and telephone conversations. These abuses, he said, are facilitated by the courts, which reject complaints about investigators exceeding their authority.

The legal provision granting investigators such authority should be eliminated altogether.

"If an investigator knows that his unfounded decision will be overturned by the court, he will not restrict the rights of the detainee. When an investigator is confident that the judge will not overturn his decision, he acts arbitrarily, at his own discretion. "Therefore, the legal provision granting investigators such authority should be eliminated altogether," Musayev told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

A representative of the Ganja City Court confirmed to a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent the information about the dismissal of Gahramanov's lawyers' complaint. Representatives of the investigative body were unavailable for comment, a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reported today.