On December 24, the Smolensk Regional Court in Russia annulled the verdict issued against Faiq Aliyev, head of the "National Congress" regional public association of the Smolensk region and leader of the local Azerbaijani diaspora.
Modern.az reports that the case has been sent back to a lower instance court for reconsideration.
The verdict against Faiq Aliyev was issued on October 16 of this year by the Lenin District Court of Smolensk, and he was arrested in the courtroom. The public figure and entrepreneur was accused of fraud during the payment for electricity consumed by his restaurant and, in connection with this, of bribing an employee of the local branch of "Rosseti".
The court had sentenced him to 4 years of imprisonment and a fine of 8.4 million rubles (178 thousand AZN).
The defense appealed this verdict. In particular, the lawyer noted that the court of first instance had not given due consideration to circumstances such as Faiq Aliyev's confession of guilt, his remorse, and even his payment of 840 thousand rubles in damages for the criminal case. Furthermore, he had only been characterized positively.
As a result, the regional court agreed with the arguments of the defense and sent the case back for reconsideration. However, the accused has been kept in custody until February 24, 2026.
