A court in Baku refused to release from custody the Shiite theologian Sardar Babayev, who was accused of treason. Babayev called the charges politically motivated, his lawyer said.
On October 19, security officials in Azerbaijan detained Haji Ilgar Ibrahimoglu, a Shiite theologian and head of the news website deyerler.org, after being interrogated as a witness, he was released. Human rights activists believed that the interest of security officials in Ibrahimoglu may be associated with the beginning of a wave of repressions against religious figures against the background of aggravation of relations between Azerbaijan and Iran. On the same day, members and supporters of the public association "Spiritual Figures of Azerbaijan" Sardar Babayev, Gadir Mammadov, Jalal Shafiev, Ali Musayev, and Tamkin Jafarov were detained. All of them collaborated with the maide.az website. On October 21, Babaev was charged with treason and placed under arrest. On October 25, Shiite theologian and the former Akhund of the "Haji Javad" mosque Akhliman Rustamov’s detention went public and was released on the same day without charge.
"At the hearing, Sardar Babayev denied the charges brought against him. He believes that his case is of a political nature. Sardar Babayev said that he was a victim of aggravated relations between Azerbaijan and Iran," the lawyer said, adding that the court did not satisfy the complaint.
Javadov noted that the defence intends to continue legal steps to change the preventive measure. In particular, he plans to apply for the transfer of Babayev to house arrest.
The lawyer declined to disclose details of the charges, citing nondisclosure obligations.
Jalal Shafiyev, a member of the Spiritual Workers of Azerbaijan association, believes that Babayev's arrest is connected to the publications on the maide.az website of the speeches and books of the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei. Babayev is also the first student from the CIS countries to whom Khamenei presented a special religious headdress, according to Shafiev's statement.
The Baku Court of Appeal confirmed the information about the rejection of Babayev's complaint. Representatives of the State Security Service of Azerbaijan were unavailable for comment.
