Baku, Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan's Supreme Court on April, 2, 2026, upheld a nine-year prison sentence slapped on leading opposition figure Tofig Yagublut for fraud and forgery that he and rights groups say is politically motivated.
Yagublu, the deputy chairman of the anti-government Musavat party, was sentenced in March last year and had appealed.
"The Supreme Court did not satisfy Tofig Yagublu's cassation appeal. I consider the verdict illegal," his lawyer Nemat Kerimli told AFP.
Yagublu, the leading opponent of strongman President Ilham Aliyev, has described the charges as politically motivated. Amnesty International said Yagublu's sentencing was "yet another grim milestone in Azerbaijan's ongoing campaign to silence those who dare to criticize the government."
"His trial on politically motivated charges was marred by due process concerns." Yagublu recently ended a 26-day hunger strike, and his health deteriorated in custody, his lawyers say.
A fierce critic of Aliyev's rights record, Yagublu, 65, was sentenced in 2014 to five years in prison. He served two years behind bars and was released in 2016 as part of an amnesty, along with 14 other jailed rights activists and opposition politicians.
