Court decides to keep Rasul Jafarov on remand for 3 more month

On 23 October, at a closed session Nasimi district court heard the petition of the Prosecutor’s Office requesting to extend the term of pretrial detention of human rights defender Rasul Jafarov for three more months.

The Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety was informed about it by the human rights defender’s lawyer Fariz Namazli. According to the lawyer, the prosecution argued that once released, Rasul Jafarov can hide from the prosecuting authority and falsify documents, and therefore they requested extension of the detention period.

“We told the court that these arguments were unfounded, because there is a travel ban on Rasul Jafarov which prohibits him to leave the country. Besides, he has presented all the original documents related to the case to the investigative agency, complied with their summons and cooperated with them. Therefore we asked the court not to grant the petition,” said the lawyer.

The human rights defender Rasul Jafarov told the court that even before the reasons for choosing the restrictive measure of arrest in respect of him had not been substantiated by the courts, and now there is no ground for his arrest either.

Jafarov requested the court not to grant the petition and replace the restrictive measure of pretrial detention with that of house arrest.

However the court granted the prosecution petition deciding to extend Rasul Jafarov’s detention period for 3 more months.

Background: Rasul Jafarov was arrested on August 2nd and was charged with three articles of the Criminal Code, article #192 (illegal business), article #213 (tax evasion) and article #308 (abuse of office). He was placed in detention for 3 months.

Amnesty International has recognized Jafarov as a “prisoner of conscience”.