Your trusted source

The charges against Azerbaijani writer AkramAylisli have been requalified from “hooliganism” to a graver article: “Resistance or use of force against the authorities representative,” according to which the 78-year-old writer may face up to three years of imprisonment, Caucasian Knot reporterFaik Majid informs.

AkramAylisli, the author of “Stone Dreams,” a book which became the reason for an investigation, was detained in Baku airport on March 30 in the morning, when he was about to fly to Frankfurt. The airport border service took him to the police for “creating a conflict situation.” The essence of the accusation is that AkramAylisli allegedly violated the public order in the airport on March 30, used abusive language, and hit at the right part of the chest of a State Border Service employee, NihadSeidov, resulting in a 3x5-centimeter bruise.

In the evening of the same day, the elderly writer was released, however, an investigation on “hooliganism” was initiated against him.

Aylisli stated that the case against him was falsified, and the detention was connected with “Azerbaijani authorities’ attempt to impede his participation in an international literary festival.” In addition, it was the continuation of the campaign unleashed against him with regard to the “Stone Dreams” novel, which, in the author’s opinion, was not worth resuming.

On April 19, Aylisli published an open letter to the Azerbaijani president through the local media, in which he noted the absurdity of the criminal case against him and asked the head of the state to intervene in order to discover and punish the airport incident culprits.

In its turn, the defense considers the accusations against Aylisli fabricated and ridiculous. The author’s attorney ElchinSadigov told the Caucasian Knot reporter that on April 21, 2016, the investigators decided to requalify the charge from Article 221.1 (hooliganism) to Article 315.1 (use of violence, resistance against the representative of the authorities by use of force) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

The article imposes a punishment of imprisonment for up to three years and does not provide for alternative types of punishment unrelated to imprisonment. As a result, the attorney says, according to the qualification of the article of the charge, the case has been transferred from the Police to the Office of Public Prosecutor.

“This criminal case is absolutely ridiculous. Itlackslegalbasis. The most absurd is the requalification of the charge to a graver article. There is no evidence of Aylisli’s guilt in the case, except for the testimony of the airport’s employees. Airport is a strategic object with surveillance cameras all around. However, illegal actions incriminating Aylisli have not been recorded by these cameras for some reason,” the attorney said.

AkramAylisli is national writer (since 1998) and Honored Artist of Azerbaijan, holder of the highest order of Azerbaijan “Istiglal” (2002) and the order of “Shokhrat” for his outstanding merits in the literature of Azerbaijan. In the beginning of 2013, on the website of Russian magazine “Friendship of Nations” was published his novel titled “Stone Dreams” in which the author describes the massacres of Armenians in Baku in 1990 and in Nakhichevan in 1919. The author in his novel speaks positively about the Armenian people and their culture.

The novel “Stone Dreams” also contains criticism over the former Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev and the tyranny of the system created by him. After publication of the novel, Aylisli was exposed to severe pressures in Azerbaijan; the pro-governmental youth held rally in front of his house, his issue was discussed in the parliament of Azerbaijan, MPs suggested to burn his books and to deprive him of citizenship and deport from Azerbaijan. Many people “blamed” Aylisli in his Armenian origin, etc.

President of Azerbaijan IlhamAliyev deprived him of personal pension and the title of National Writer, and accused him of “purposefully distorting the history of Azerbaijan” and “in distorting realities about history of Azerbaijan in an inappropriate way.” The leader of the pro-governmental party ”Modern Musavat” HafisHajiyev announced that he would pay about 10 Euros to the one who will cut the ear of the writer. Only after the intervention of the media, the politician was “warned” by the Interior Ministry of Azerbaijan about the illegality of such appeals. The U.S. Department of State and the OSCE Office in Baku condemned persecution of Aylisli in Azerbaijan and called on the authorities to fulfill their obligations.