NEWS IN JANUARY 2020
15 January
Protest rally of parents of persons involved in “Ganja case”
Parents of persons arrested in the “Ganja case”
On 15 January parents of persons involved in the “Ganja case” held a protest rally in front of the Supreme Court. Dozens of people blocked the road, chanting the slogan: “Freedom!”
“Our children were illegally arrested, and no official wants to accept and listen to us,” one of the protesters told journalist of the Turan Agency.
“Why are we being driven to suicide? Our sick children remain in prisons, which ruins their lives,” said another participant in the action.
The police, pushing back the protesters, unblocked the road.
The protesters said that in the morning they came to the presidential administration, but were faced with rudeness.
“We were told to come without journalists and they would accept us, but we were deceived. The police rudely detained us and put us on the bus. We were sent to the Supreme Court, saying that they would receive us there, but after waiting a few hours, we realized that we had been deceived again,” said another protester.
Parents believe that their children were illegally arrested and charged, which was not proven in court.
“The prosecutor asked us, ‘Why did your children pray?‘ But is this a crime? Our children were so tortured that they still have not recovered from injuries. Three times a month, we give them medicines. For a year and 7 months now we have been on the road between Baku and Ganja. Even the drivers who bring us here are exerted pressure. They are required not to carry us to Baku, threatening us with arrests,” continued the protester.
18 January
Yunis Safarov has not been allowed to see his lawyer
Yunis Safarov
Yunis Safarov, accused of the attempting to murder the former Ganja governor, Elmar Valiyev, was not allowed to see his new lawyer Bakhtiyar Hajiyev in the Baku pre-trial detention centre on 17 January. that was stated by Safarov’s uncle Fuzuli Ismayilov.
Mr. Ismayilov explained that despite the fact that the lawyer had submitted a writ of mandate to defend Yunis Safarov, he had been prevented from seeing the accused.
“Not allowing a lawyer to meet with Yunis is a violation of rights, as for a lawyer as for an accused. What kind of fair legal defence are we talking about? It is a very basic right of any lawyer to meet with a client and this right is not respected in relation to Yunis,” Ismailov continued.
Earlier, while being in prison, Safarov claimed that he had been denied any visits and phone calls with his loved ones for a year and a half right after his arrest.
Safarov’s aunt said that her nephew’s reason to commit an attempting to murder the former Head of Ganja was Valiyev’s “insult” of the Ganja residents.
In his turn, Mehman Sadigov, the Head of the Public Relations Department of the Penitentiary Service, announced on the “Radio Azadliq” that there had been no obstacles for the lawyers to meet with their defendants in accordance with the procedure stipulated by the law.
23 January
It is disclosed a number of the registered religious communities
The State Committee in charge of Work with Religious Organisations
The State Committee in charge of Work with Religious Organisations (SCWRO) has disclosed statistics concerning the religious communities that obtained the State registration in Azerbaijan. According to Jahandar Alifzadeh, the Head of the SCWRO, 34 religious communities (31 Islamic and 3 other confessions) were registered in 2019.
Thus, as of 1 January 2020, there were 941 registered religious communities in Azerbaijan, of which 906 were Islamic and 35 communities represented other confessions, including 24 Christian, 8 Jewish, two Baha’i and one Krishna religious communities. It was also announced that 1,021 religious figures were provided the financial assistance in 2019.
According to an official report issued by SCWRO, the provided by the State assistance granted to the religious figures has been increased by 40 per cent in 2019.