Woman reportedly runs away from court in Azerbaijan prior to sentencing

On Monday, pro-government media outlets claimed that a 64-year-old woman fled a courtroom in Azerbaijan ahead of her sentencing after being convicted of embezzling over ₼64,000 ($38,000) from the arts centre where she worked.

Lala Novruzova was convicted in relation to her time as deputy director for academic affairs at the Shamakhi City Centre for Art Education from 2013–2022. Since 2022, she has worked as an accordion teacher at the centre.

She was found to have stolen the money along with the centre’s director, Namig Rzazada, according to pro-government media outlet Qafqazinfo. The case against Rzazada is continuing.

After the court adjourned to deliberate on the verdict on 7 April, according to local media, the judges returned to find Novruzova had fled. Court officials reported that Novruzova, who had been previously out on bail, had asked to leave the room for a few minutes, citing a health issue.

According to the verdict, Novruzova was sentenced to three years and six months in prison, after which an arrest warrant was issued against her. She was also ordered to repay ₼32,000 ($19,000) to the Ministry of Culture.

‘Despite being present at the court hearing held, the accused left the courtroom without the permission of the presiding judge and before the end of the court hearing. Based on the above, the court concludes that the accused should be placed on the wanted list and the term of imprisonment should be calculated from the moment of her arrest, and the measure of restraint chosen against her should not be changed until the sentence comes into legal force’, the verdict read.

Pro-government media in Azerbaijan have reported that the incident took place at various times over the past two months.

While widespread reports only emerged this week claiming the sentencing hearing occurred on 7 April, an earlier article published by Qafqazinfo alleged the arrest warrant against Novruzova had been issued on 14 March. Qafqazinfo also reported that Novruzova had been arrested directly in the courtroom.

Yet, according to the original text of the verdict, the order to arrest Novruzova was made on 24 February.

As Novruzova remains missing, pro-government media appears to be republishing the account of her disappearance from the courtroom, amending the dates at which it supposedly occurred.

According to Azerbaijani lawyer Samad Samadli, misinformation is prohibited under Article 14 of the Law on Mass Media, ‘which states that facts and events must be presented impartially and objectively and must not be one-sided’.

However, he told OC Media that there is little regulation of the law, given that ‘the Media Development Agency or another organisation must criticise this media outlet and demand accuracy’.

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