Yavar Ismayilzade – believer Date of arrest: 30 March 2023 139 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 30 March 2023, Yavar Ismayilzade was sentenced to 4 months in a pre-trial detention center. The period of detention in custody during the investigation has been subsequently extended several times Sentence: On 21 November 2023, the Ganja City Court for Serious Crimes issued a verdict: as the prosecution failed to provide any convincing evidence in the course of the trial, so the Judge replaced the previous Article of the charge 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. Afterwards Yavar Ismayilzade was sentenced to 3 years behind the bars, to this term the Judge added 2 years and 6 months remaining from the previous sentence. As a result, Yavar Ismayilzade was sentenced to 5 years and 6 months of imprisonment serving his sentence in a general regime facility. Place of detention: Penal Colony № 1 at the Boyuk Shor settlement in Baku City Nizami District Conclusion: Yavar Ismayilzade, a former political prisoner, was sentenced for so-called "Ganja case" to 9 years imprisonment in March 2019. Two months later, an Appeal Court shortened his sentence to 5 years. In May 2022, he was pardoned and released. But in a matter of 10 months he was again arrested and once more went through interrogations, torture and deprivation of liberty.