Chairman of Azerbaijan’s opposition Citizen and Development Party Ali Aliyev was sentenced to six-month arrest in Yasamal District Court in Baku on June 23. Aliyev, who is already in prison on libel charge, was charged with insult this time.
The June-23 trial took place on the basis of an appeal from a former ruling party official Ramiz Goyushov, who claimed that Aliyev insulted him on an Internet television while commenting on a pornographic video of his. The video, where Goyushov appears to masturbate during a private call, was leaked in September last year, and since then he has been fired from the New Azerbaijan Party (NAP).
In his defense, Aliyev said in the trial that he called Goyushov ‘mastrubant’, which he argued was only a medical term. He also claimed that the new charge against him is a political order.
This is a continuation of persecution against me. Look how miserable they are that they’re using someone they expelled from NAP against a political rival.
Ali Aliyev
Previously, Aliyev was arrested in January for five months on libel charge, based on an appeal from a State Border Service officer, who reportedly survived a helicopter crash last year in Khizi district. Following the crash, where 14 died and 2 survived, Aliyev said on an interview that he doesn’t believe that it was an accident, and that there are any survivors from the helicopter. In April, the other survivor too sued Aliyev, for which the latter was sentenced for another six months in prison.
In his latest trial, Aliyev doubled down on his statement that he doesn’t believe the alleged survivors to be on that helicopter.
Anyone in their right mind knows that when a helicopter hits the ground at that speed, a person cannot get out of it on temperature of 1000 degrees. I did not name those people in my speech. They were told [to sue him], and they did so. They are just a tool.
Ali Aliyev
