Azerbaijan Frees Opposition Leader From Jail

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Azerbaijan frees opposition leader from jail

Azerbaijan on Monday freed opposition leader Ilgar Mammadov from jail five years after his imprisonment sparked widespread international condemnation for being politically motivated.

Baku, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Aug, 2018 ) :Azerbaijan on Monday freed opposition leader Ilgar Mammadov from jail five years after his imprisonment sparked widespread international condemnation for being politically motivated.

A court in the capital Baku ruled the 48-year-old leader of the pro-Western ReAL opposition party should be freed "with a two-year probation period," his lawyer Fuad Agayev told journalists.

Mammadov, previously seen as President Ilham Aliyev's leading political opponent, was also banned from travelling abroad, his lawyer added.

"We will be trying to achieve his full acquittal," Agayev said.

Pro-democracy campaigner Mammadov was widely expected to run in presidential elections when he was arrested in February 2013 on charges of causing unrest in the town of Ismayilli.

He denied any role in the trouble, which saw police and protesters clash, but was sentenced in 2014 to seven years in jail for "inciting anti-government riots".

The same year, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the criminal proceedings against Mammadov had no legal basis and were politically motivated.

In October 2015, Mammadov's lawyers said he was severely beaten in the head by prison guards.

In 2016, the European Union called on Azerbaijan to comply with the ruling and release Mammadov after the tightly-controlled former Soviet state's supreme court rejected his appeal.

Rights groups say the government of the energy-rich Caspian state has clamped down on opponents since 2013.

Aliyev secured a fourth consecutive presidential term in April with 86 percent of the vote in elections that international observers said were marred by "serious irregularities" and lack of competition.

He has been in power for 15 years and was first elected in 2003, after the death of his father Heydar Aliyev.