Court rules to hold Intigam Aliev in pre-trial detention
Azerbaijan
On 12 September 2014, Nasimi District Court in Baku rejected the petition to transfer Intigam Aliev from pre-trial detention to house arrest. Intigam Aliev will appeal this ruling in Baku City Court.
On the morning of 8 August 2014, Intigam Aliyev was summoned for interrogation in the Serious Crimes Investigation Department of the General Prosecutor’s Office in Baku, where he was charged with tax evasion (under article 213.1 of the Criminal Code), illegal enterprise (article 192.2.2) and abuse of official power (article 308.2), and was then sent to pre-trial detention. Furthermore, his house and office were searched.
Intigam Aliyev is the head of the Legal Education Society,a human rights organisation that provides legal support to mass and non-governmental organisations and low-income groups of the population. As a human rights lawyer, Intigam Aliyev has submitted more than 200 applications to the European Court of Human Rights in cases of election rigging, abuses of free speech and right to fair trial. His arrest seems to be linked to the fact that the European Court of Human Rights has begun addressing complaints submitted with the assistance of Intigam Aliyev.
Lawyers for Lawyers, together with the Law Society of England and Wales, sent letters to the authorities of Azerbeidjan to call upon them to immediately and unconditionally release Intigam Aliyev from pre-trial detention, and to drop the charges against him. Click here to see the letters that were sent.