Anar Mammadli, the head of the Center for Election Monitoring and Democracy Education (EMDT), an election expert, was detained on April 29 and accused of smuggling.
While a search was conducted at Anar Mammadli’s house, his relatives and lawyers were not allowed to participate in. His lawyer Elchin Sadigov was told that he wouldn’t be allowed to participate in the house search, since he is defending another person in the same case.
Neither his lawyer nor family members were informed about the results of the house search.
Mammadli’s relatives told to reporters that he was detained on the “Abzas case” and charged with Article 206.3.2 of the Criminal Code (smuggling committed by a group of persons who colluded in advance).
What is the “Abzas case”?
The crackdown on independent media outelts in Azerbaijan has started since November 2023 with the detention of at least 6 team members of Abzas Media, including media’s director, deputy director, editor-in-chief and 3 reporters.
They were charged based on the Article 206.3.2 of the Criminal Code – smuggling, when committed by a group of persons who colluded in advance. Each of them was sentenced to several months of pre-trial detention period. They could face up to 8 years in prison.
They didn’t agree with the accusation and stated that the real reason for the detention is their journalistic activities.
