BAKU -- Azerbaijan's Supreme Court has upheld the two-year prison sentence to anticorruption blogger Mehman Huseynov who was convicted of libel and sentenced to two years in prison last year.
Huseynov refused to take part in the June 25 hearing in Baku in protest.
Huseynov was found guilty of libel and sentenced last year.
Huseynov has maintained his innocence and called the case against him politically motivated.
Police filed libel charges against Huseynov after he said in January 2017 that police officers had beaten him and demanded he stop his anticorruption activities.
In December 2016 and January 2017, Huseynov posted photographs of luxury homes he alleged belonged to government officials and lawmakers.
Human rights groups accuse President Ilham Aliyev's government of fabricating criminal cases to stifle dissent and media freedom in the oil-producing Caspian Sea country.
Huseynov's lawyers said they will now appeal their client's conviction with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
