Fresh charges brought against arrested Azeri opposition lawyer

Aliyev is already facing charges on three separate articles of the Criminal Code: 213.1 "tax evasion”, 308.2 "abuse of authority”, and 192.2 "illegal business”.

Aliyev’s laywer Javad Javadov said the new accusation is "baseless” just like the existing ones. 

"There are no concrete facts or proof for this charge either just as with previous ones”, said Javadov.

Aliyev was arrested in August and sentenced to three months of pretrial detention. His sentence was extended in October. His health has been deteriorating since his arrest with prison doctors providing Aliyev with pain killers only.

Last week, Rasul Jafarov, human rights activists also received new charges including article 313 "fraud” and similar to Aliyev, "misappropriation and embezzlement”.