The Kharkiv court has arrested Azerbaijani political émigré Bahruz Gasanli.

The Kharkiv Court of Appeal has arrested activist of the Azerbaijan People's Front Party, Bahruz Gasanli, for 30 days, who was previously released by the first instance court. The PNFAP considers the decision unjustified. The arrest of the activist, whose extradition is demanded by Baku, coincided with the visit to Ukraine of the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.

As reported by “Caucasian Knot”, Azerbaijani opposition activist, member of the Azerbaijan People's Front Party Bahruz Gasanli was detained on July 27 in Kharkiv at the request of official Baku in connection with a fraud case. Gasanli's associates linked the case against him to the criminal prosecution of PNFAP activists, including party leader Ali Kerimli. The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kharkiv released him from custody on July 30 .

Bahruz Gasanli arrested in Kharkiv

The Kharkiv Court of Appeal on August 6 detained the activist of the Azerbaijan People's Front Party (PNFAP) Bahruz Gasanli at the request of Baku for extradition.

“Bahruz Gasanli had previously been detained at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan. But on July 30, the first instance court released him. It seemed that the threat of unjustified criminal prosecution had passed. However, yesterday (August 6), the Kharkiv Court of Appeal hastily held a session and sent Bahruz to arrest for 30 days. As far as we understand, during this period, an investigation will be conducted regarding the validity of the extradition request. However, there is no need to keep Bahruz in custody. We hope that ultimately the rule of law will prevail in Gasanli's case in Ukraine and the politically motivated request of the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan will be rejected,” the PNFAP press service told a correspondent of the “Caucasian Knot”.

The arrest of Gasanli coincided with the visit of the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister to Ukraine

The information about Gasanli's arrest for 30 days was also confirmed by Ukrainian journalist Leonid Shvets.

“Remember, we were pleased that the Azerbaijani oppositionist living in Kharkiv, who is wanted for extradition by Baku, was released? We were happy too soon. Literally in record time, the Appeals Court in the same Kharkiv ruled to detain Bahruz Gasanli for thirty days. On what grounds this decision was made, the lawyers were not informed: the written decision will be formalized and provided in five days. The court has time to think and justify the decision retroactively. I must say honestly, I did not know that this happens,” Shvets wrote on Facebook*.

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He noted that the arrest of Gasanli coincided with the visit to Ukraine of Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.

“Somehow, of course, completely coincidentally, the detention of the oppositionist coincided with the visit to Ukraine of the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister. https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/425536. Well, it just happened, such things happen,” Shvets ironically noted.

He also doubted the validity of the accusations against Gasanli made in Azerbaijan.

“Let me remind you, in Bahruz's homeland, a member of the People's Front Party is accused of involvement in organizing a coup and transferring huge sums for this purpose to party leader Ali Kerimli. Given that the guy, who has been living in Ukraine since 2022, simply does not have money for a lawyer, this is hard to believe. However, there is no belief in a happy outcome of the court in Azerbaijan at all. And this whole story smells bad. And Ukraine, where they love to talk about European values and human rights, looks disgusting in it,” the Ukrainian journalist concluded.

It was not possible to obtain comments from the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan.

Critics of the Azerbaijani authorities have repeatedly been detained in Ukraine

The Ukrainian authorities have previously detained Azerbaijani activists multiple times. For example, on October 14, 2017, Fikret Huseynli, who received political asylum and citizenship in the Netherlands, was detained at Kyiv airport. Azerbaijani security forces initiated his international search on charges of fraud and illegal border crossing. Huseynli rejected these charges.

In December 2019, blogger Elvin Isayev was detained in Ukraine for violating immigration laws and deported to Azerbaijan, where he was arrested on criminal charges of public calls against the state and mass riots.

Human rights defenders and lawyers questioned the legality and transparency of the deportation, not excluding the involvement of special services. The Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan stated that Isayev is being held in custody based on a court decision, the charges were brought with the participation of a lawyer, and the conditions of detention comply with standards. According to lawyer Gyulara Ilyasova, Isayev admitted guilt and did not complain about the conditions of detention.

Author: Faik Mejid, source, correspondent of the “Caucasian Knot”