Elshan Mahammad oglu Alakbarov – believer Date of arrest: 21 October 2023 161 Charge: Article 234.4.3 (Illegal manufacturing, purchase, storage, transportation, transfer or selling of narcotics, psychotropic substances committed in large amount) of the Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan Republic.
On 21 October 2023, the Ganja City inhabitant Elshan Alakbarov was sentenced to 4 months in a pre-trial detention center for the duration of the preliminary investigation.
The period of detention in custody during the investigation has been subsequently extended several times Sentence: On 21 October 2024, the Ganja City Court for Serious Crimes issued a verdict: since the prosecution failed to provide any convincing evidence in the course of the trial, the Judge substituted the previous Article of the Prosecution with a new one, 234.1-1 (Illegal acquisition or storage of drugs or psychotropic substances without the purpose of sale in an amount exceeding the amount necessary for personal consumption, committed in a large amount) of the Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan Republic.
And afterwards Elshan Alakbarov was sentenced to 3 years months and 6 months of imprisonment Judge: Natiq Aliyev Conclusion: During his appearance at the trial, Elshan Alakbarov (born in 1978), a resident of Ganja City, pleaded not guilty to the charges and stated that on 21 October 2023, three police officers suddenly grabbed him on the street and brought to the Ganja City Main Police Department.
There, he was told that there was a man in the office of the Department Head who had come from Baku to pick him up and his arrest was an ‘order’.
One of the policemen by the name of Shahin took a roll out of the cabinet and said, ‘This is yours, put it in your pocket.' To which Elshan Alakbarov replied, ‘If this is my package, then why has it emerged from your cabinet and not from my pocket’.
In response, that Shahin came over and punched him in his right ear, saying, ‘While I am quietly telling you, don't play around, take it as your own, you will get a year and a half and then you will go free.’ Alakbarov again argued that he was not a drug addict and did not use any drugs, to which Shahin mentioned that they had come from Baku to pick him up and if he did not agree it would be even worse.
And further told him what he would go through when the drugs would definitely be found in his house and he showed him three men with white packages with drugs saying that a video camera would record the discovery.
After that Elshan Alakbarov was forced to accept and said on the video that he is allegedly a drug addict; once on the side of the road he saw drugs (10.154 grams) and took them because he was curious, and then he was detained by the police when he tried to throw the drugs away.
However, the Judge considered Elshan Alakbarov's testimony on the drugs not being his own and planted by the police as a defence and an attempt to evade the criminal responsibility.
