Tofig Yagublu reproaches court of protracting with decision on his complaint

The decision on the appeal against the verdict is being unreasonably protracted, the convicted oppositionist, Tofig Yagublu, said after the court session held in Baku on November 12. He suggested that the court had not yet received an instruction on what the verdict should be.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 2-18, Tofig Yagublu was on a hunger strike, demanding to cancel the guilty verdict and acquit him under his hooliganism case. He treated himself as a provocation victim and accused the court of "fulfilling a political order." On September 18, the court decided to transfer him to house arrest, after which the oppositionist agreed to stop the hunger strike.

On November 12, the Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) held another session on Yagublu's appeal complaint.

At the trial, Yagublu has testified. "I again pointed out that this is a politically motivated case. If investigators had reliable proofs of my committing a road accident and beating up the victim, they would have immediately showed that on TV. After all, the place of the incident was crowded, near the marketplace. There are a lot of CCTV cameras there. But they did nothing of the kind. The proofs were falsified," Mr Yagublu told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The oppositionist has noted that the parties' debate was over and, according to procedural norms, the judge should have rendered a verdict. However, the court postponed the next session until December 3.

"It is obvious that they are waiting for instructions from above on what decision to make. [Due to the hostilities in the Karabakh conflict zone], the court has not yet managed to receive instructions on my case. Therefore, they are protracting with the announcement of the decision," Tofig Yagublu has concluded.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 13, 2020 at 10:17 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.