Today, 5 February, in the Baku Appellate Court, under the chairmanship of Judge Gail Mammadov, a hearing was scheduled to take place on the appeal of Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade’s lawyers Isakhan Ashurov and Elton Guliyev against the decision of the Sabail District Court adopted on 11 November 2009.

Although the representatives of the OSCE Baku Office, the German Embassy, the Azerbaijan Lawyers Association, the “Dalga” youth movement, Yeni Musavat newspaper and the Institute for Reporters` Freedom and Safety participated in the hearing to monitor the trial, the judges came to the court hall after about an hour.

Judge G.Mammadov said that due to difficult weather conditions in Baku, bloggers` participation in the hearing was not secured and the lawyers did not participate in the hearing. Therefore, the hearing on this case was postponed until 12 February at 11a.m.

On 8 July, at approximately 8:00 p.m., Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade were sitting at a table in “Lebonese”  (Livan) restaurant along with several other young adults, when two people that looked like sportsmen came up to them, and attacked them causing physical injuries. Although they appealed to police as victims, police detained Adnan and Emin as suspected persons for 48 hours and freed the attackers. On 10 July, the Sabail District Court issued a decision under article 221.2.1 (hooliganism) of the Criminal Code to sentence Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade to two months pre-trial detention. On July 20 the Appellate Court upheld the decision of the lower court. The investigation of the criminal case was concluded and a criminal case under articles 221.2.1 (hooliganism) and 127 (inflicting intentional minor bodily harm) was opened against E.Millli and A.Hajizade and the case had been sent to court to be considered. According to the verdict of Sabail district Court, Emin Milli was sentenced to 2,5 years imprisonment and Adnan Hajizade to 2 years imprisonment on 11 November.