The court extended the prison term of two journalists in the case of “Abzas Media”.

On June 10, the Khatai District Court provided the presentation of the investigation regarding the extension of the prison term of investigative journalist Hafiz Babali for another month – until July 13. His lawyer Rasul Jafarov told Turan about this.

During the meeting, the defense side noted that Babali’s arrest was unjustified and filed a motion to replace the pretrial detention measure with house arrest.

The journalist once again denied the accusations of smuggling, connected his work with journalism and focused the court’s attention on health problems.

Babali is the third group of visually impaired. In addition, he has varicose veins in his leg.

However, judge Ilaha Abbasova extended the journalist’s prison term. The defense will appeal.

Today, Khatai court extended the initial prison term of another defendant in this case, journalist Elnara Gasimova, for another 2 months – until August 13, her lawyer Gunay Ismayilova said.

The defense side does not agree with this decision due to the lack of material and procedural grounds for the detention of the journalist and intends to appeal the decision.

Elnara Gasimova denies the accusation and links it to her journalistic activities.

It should be noted that by the decision of the prosecutor’s office, the investigation on the “Abzas Media case” was extended until September 20.

* From November 2023 to January 2024, six journalists and media workers related to “Abzas Media” were arrested on the charge of “smuggling by a group of people who colluded in advance”.

In April of this year, Imran Aliyev, the head of the meclis.info website, and Anar Mammadli, the head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Education Center, were arrested in connection with this case. Later, their cases were taken up separately.

On June 1, economist Farid Mehralizadeh was arrested in connection with the “Abzas Media” case.

Those arrested do not consider themselves guilty. Human rights defenders identified them as political prisoners. International organizations have called for the release of those arrested.