A picket was held in Baku in support of Gilal Mammadov

On Wednesday in Baku, members of the Committee for the Defense of the Rights of Gilal Mamedov, the editor-in-chief of the Tolyshi Sado newspaper, who was arrested last year for treason , held a rally in front of the court building for serious crimes, the Talysh News Agency reports.

The picket was timed to coincide with the court hearing in Mamedov’s case.

The protesters once again protested against the closed trial of Mamedov and spoke out against the violation of his rights. They held a banner with the slogan “Freedom for Gilal Mamedov!”

According to committee member Mehdibek Safarov, the judicial investigation is being conducted with rough procedural rules and defense motions are rejected.

The editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Voice of Talysh", deputy head of the Talysh Cultural Center, Professor Gilal Mamedov, who became famous on the Internet thanks to the video "Come on, goodbye", was arrested on June 21 on charges of illegal drug possession. On July 4, new charges were brought against him - under Article 274 ("High Treason") and Article 283.2.2 ("Incitement of national, racial, social and religious hatred, enmity, ethnic discrimination"). Now seriously ill Mamedov faces imprisonment from 15 years to life .

Mamedov himself believes that the reason for his arrest was ignoring the ban of the President of Azerbaijan on holding days of Talysh culture and promoting Talysh culture (Talysh are the ancient people of the South Caucasus, some Talysh live in the south of Azerbaijan), as well as the success of the video “Who are you? Come on, before goodbye!”, after which a lot of people, according to him, became interested in Talysh culture. International human rights organizations recognized Mamedov as a prisoner of conscience and demanded his immediate release.