Azar Gasimli, the former Deputy Chair of the opposition REAL Party and Director of the Institute of Political Management, has been sentenced to four months in pre-trial detention. He is facing charges of demanding money by threat or force, which carry a prison sentence of five to ten years. 

Gasimli was originally detained on 8 December and held for around 48 hours, which his lawyer Agil Layij told Meydan TV was against the law. 

‘A complaint against Gasimli was filed by the person who took a [loan] from him. Even though there was an earlier court decision that the debt should be repaid, the [borrower] began to claim that Gasimli allegedly threatened him,’ Layij said, explaining the charges.  

Layij emphasised that the borrower, Gurbanali Yusibov, filed a complaint against Gasimli on 7 December, and the next day, a criminal case was opened against him.

Gasimli’s wife, Samira Gasimli, told OC Media that Yusibov had borrowed money from Gasimli around four years ago, but then afterwards never responded to any calls or messages. 

‘Azar did not want to solve this issue via the courts, and up until the last day, he tried to reach Gurbanali. But until the court process, he did not answer Azar. At the court, he was represented by his father. And the court also recognised that Yusibov should return the borrowed money.’

Meydan TV reported that during the court hearing on Sunday, Gasimli said that he was punished because he spoke the truth. 

‘There is no politics in Azerbaijan today, and I am not a politician either. Because where there is no politics, there are no politicians. I am here because I speak the truth’, Gasimli reportedly said. 

On 22 November, Gasimli was given a travel ban. Three days later, he was interrogated by Baku police as a suspected witness in several criminal cases.

Gasimli is a known critic of the domestic and foreign policies of the Azerbaijani government. In his posts on social media and in his statements in interviews, he has explained how the new wave of arrests of journalists and activists over the past year led to a turn in Azerbaijan's foreign policy towards rapprochement with the Kremlin.

His defence plans to appeal the court’s decision.