Azerbaijani human rights lawyer Zabil Gahramanov has been charged with hooliganism and given three months of pre-trial detention after attacking a carwash employee.
Gahramanov was detained on 23 October by police officers from the Ganja Police Department and was placed in pre-trial detention by the Ganja City Court on 25 October.
Following his arrest, pro-government media outlet APA wrote that Gahramanov was additionally charged with fraud committed against one of his clients.
APA published a brief and blurred snippet of the altercation, showing Gahramanov kicking an unidentified man.
A friend of Gahramanov’s has told OC Media on the condition of anonymity that the victim, whom they claim was called Fazil Isgandarov, worked at the carwash. After cleaning Gahramanov’s car, Isgandarov told him that he forgot his car keys inside the car.
Gahramanov then discovered that the rear end of his car had been scratched.
‘Gahramanov kicked Isgandarov and Isgandarov complained to the police about it, and the police and an ambulance took him to the hospital, claiming he was injured’, Gahramanov’s friend told OC Media.
The friend added that Gahramanov was charged with fraud following his arrest.
‘They found someone from Shamkir district. He claimed that Gahramanov took ₼5,000 ($2,900) from him and promised to win the case, but he lost’, Gahramanov's friend told OC Media.
Gahramanov has denied all charges pressed against him.
His lawyer, Saadat Seyidli, told RFE/RL that they had submitted a complaint to the Prosecutor General regarding the investigation, saying that the alleged hooliganism case in Goygol fell out of the Ganja police’s jurisdiction.
‘When conducting an investigation, territorial jurisdiction must be respected’, Seyidli said, according to RFE/RL.
In early October, Azerbaijan’s Bar Association suspended Gahramanov from practicing law for six months for disciplinary violations.
According to RFE/RL, Gahrmanov has regularly publicly criticised the police in Ganja, with his friend suggesting to OC Media that this case could be connected to his criticism.
Gahramanov has previously worked on several high-profile cases, among which he represented Ilkin Suleymanov, who was accused of kidnapping and burning the body of 11-year-old Narmin Guliyeva in the village of Dondar Gushchu, Tovuz, and Polad Ismailov, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for murder and released four years later after being acquitted.
Azerbaijan’s Bar Association has previously been accused of disbarring lawyers for expressing opinions critical of the government. In July, the association criticised ‘some lawyers’ for publicly discussing their cases ‘in an unethical manner’, and warning that ‘more serious measures’ will be taken against those lawyers in the future.
Aytan Farhadova
