Trial of Anar Mammadli and Anar Abdulla begins

Anar Mammadli and Anar Abdulla

The trial of Anar Mammadli, the imprisoned chairman of the Center for Monitoring and Democracy Studies, and public activist Anar Abdulla, has begun.

The defendants' questionnaire data was clarified during the trial held at the Baku Grave Crimes Court on May 26.

Mammadli's lawyer Javad Javadov filed a motion to have his client sit next to him, not in a glass cage. The motion was granted.

Later, Javadov filed a motion to have Mammadli placed under house arrest and the criminal case dismissed.

Anar Abdulla's defense lawyer also filed a motion to have the criminal case dismissed.

The court did not grant the motions.

Mammadli's other lawyer, Elchin Sadigov, asked the court to postpone the preparatory meeting in order to familiarize himself with the documents in the criminal case.

The preparatory meeting was postponed until June 2.

Anar Mammadli was detained on April 29, 2024.

He is charged with smuggling by a group of persons in advance of the Criminal Code.

Mammadli does not plead guilty.

A. Abdulla was recognized as a defendant in the criminal case opened against Mammadli on April 8.

He was charged with illegal entrepreneurship, false entrepreneurship, smuggling, evasion of taxes, unemployment insurance, compulsory medical insurance or compulsory state social insurance contributions, smuggling committed by a group of persons in advance, and forgery of official documents, state awards, seals, stamps, and forms of the Criminal Code.