Summary Kerimli's brother Siradj was in March also sentenced to six years in prison.
BAKU (AFP) - A court in Azerbaijan on Wednesday jailed a leading opposition activist to six-and-a-half years in jail on drug charges decried as politically motivated by critics of the government.
The serious crimes court in Baku found Faradj Kerimli, deputy head of the opposition party Musavat, guilty of large-scale narcotics dealing, his lawyer Neimat Kerimli told AFP.
The lawyer said the defendant had refused to make a final statement in court and had already dismissed the charges as fabricated.
Kerimli had run Musavat s website and Facebook sites and used them as a platform to highlight rampant corruption in the regime of President Ilham Aliyev, his lawyer said.
Kerimli s brother Siradj was in March also sentenced to six years in prison.
The oil-rich, ex-Soviet republic of Azerbaijan is known for its heavy handed approach to dissenters.
Rights groups accuse the government of using spurious charges to jail its critics and say the authorities have stepped up their campaign to stifle opposition since Aliyev s election to a third term in 2013.
Aliyev, 53, came to power in 2003 following an election seen as flawed by international observers.
He took over after the death of his father Heydar Aliyev, a former KGB officer and communist-era leader who had ruled newly independent Azerbaijan with an iron fist since 1993.
