On October 12, Baku Grave Crimes Court ruled a verdict on a 30-year-old man who raped a teenage activist Sanay Yaghmur two years ago. The rapist, Asgar Aghazada, was sentenced to a five-year time in prison.
The verdict came after a long battle of Yaghmur and her fellow activists, including her mother Zumrud Yaghmur, as the final trial was being postponed for different reasons. One time, on August 17, the trial was postponed because Aghazada reportedly had a stomachache. The Yaghmurs and fellow feminist activists have been claiming that the postponement of the final trial was for political reasons.
Following the verdict, Zumrud Yaghmur said that the five-year arrest isn’t enough punishment. Under Azerbaijani legislation, the punishment for the rape of a minor is a prison time of between 5 to 10 years. In the earlier trial, the state prosecutor had called for Aghazada to be sentenced to seven years.
Although we feel that it is not enough, in the end, Sanay’s victory will embolden girls and women who are suffering and cannot make their voices heard in Azerbaijan.
Zumrud Yaghmur told OC Media
The Yaghmurs first reported the case to the police in August 2020, three days after then-17-year-old activist was raped. Yet, the Prosecutor’s Office back then refused to press charges until Yaghmur wrote a lengthy post in October 2021, detailing her experience and the law enforcement’s negligence.
