While in custody, blogger Elchin Hasanzade appealed to President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, on the eve of his cassation appeal considration at the Supreme Court, with a request to ensure a fair hearing of his case.

He asked the media to convey his appeal to the head of state, international structures and media that he suffered for exposing corruption.

“The head of state himself called on the media to expose corruption and help him in fighting it. I filmed and showed the facts of corruption for which I was arrested. In my article, I described “a big-horned official” for which I was sentenced to 8 months of imprisonment,” he said.

Hasanzadeh believes that the Mingachevir heads he criticized are behind his arrest.

It should be recalled that on March 2 this year, the Sheki Court of Appeal sentenced bloggers and activists Elchin Hasanzade and Ibrahim Turksoy to 8 months of imprisonment slander and insult charges.

The claim was filed by the head of the city housing and maintenance department, Shakhriyar Mustafayev as a private criminal charge demanding to sue Hasanov under Articles 147.1. (slander) and 148 (insult) of the Criminal Code. The reason for the claim is critical publications about this official in social networks.

Note that earlier, the Mingachevir court sentenced both of them to a year of correctional task; the bloggers appealed the verdict; however, the court of appeal replaced the punishment with a real term of imprisonment.

It has to be noted that Hasanzadeh was also engaged in human rights protection activities, and in the past was the deputy editor of the Sumgayit newspaper “Yukselish Namine”.

Source: Turan News Agency