| Azerbaijan_Briefing note_211114 14 pages / 209 KB |
Over the
past months, Ms. Leyla Yunus, Mr. Arif Yunus, Mr. Intigam Aliyev and Mr. Rasul
Jafarov have all been sentenced to pre-trial detention on criminal charges such
as “treason” (Article 274 of the Criminal Code), “large-scale fraud” (Article
(178.3.2), “forgery” (Article 320), “tax evasion” (Article 213), and “illegal
business” (Article 192) or “abuse of authority” (Article 308.2). As they await
trials, their pre-detention period has now been extended and they remain
detained in worrying conditions. On October 24, 2014, the pre-trial detention
of Leyla Yunus was extended until February 28, 2015. Similarly, on October 29,
2014, the pre-trial detention of her husband and co-defendant, Mr. Arif
Yunusov, also was extended until March 5, 2015. In addition, on October 24,
2014, the pre-trial detention Intigam Aliyev was extended until February 8,
2015
Ms. Yunus,
detained in Kurdakhani Detention Center No 1, was repeatedly harassed and
physically attacked by her cellmate. Moreover, despite her severe health
problems she has not received necessary medical help. Mr Aliyev's health has
also sharply deteriorated. As reported by his family, on November 7, 2014,
after two hours of their meeting he could no longer speak or stand. He suffers
from severe headache, loss of appetite and insomnia. An examination in late October
revealed cervical osteochondrosis and protrusion of
the intervertebral disc, which necessitates hospital treatment.
Dismissals and harassment of the lawyers of human
rights defenders is another unacceptable phenonemon. Notably, on October 29,
2014, Ms. Leyla Yunus was deprived of her lawyer, Mr. Javad Javadov. This
decision followed Mr. Javadov’s active criticism of the judicial process
against Ms. Yunus. On November 5, 2014, Ms. Yunus was deprived of her second
lawyer, Mr. Khalid Bagirov, for unexplained reasons. There is a risk that her
third lawyer, Mr. Alaif Hasanov, will also be dismissed. He has already been
subject of a lawsuit by a cellmate of Ms. Yunus, Ms. Nuriya Huseynova. The
latter accused Mr. Hasanov of calling her a “criminal” in a report published in
the Azadlig newspaper on September 17, 2014. On November 6, 2014, the
court sentenced Mr. Hasanov to 240 hours of community service. Similarly, three
out of four lawyers of Mr. Intigam
Aliyev, namely Messrs. Anar Qasymly, Alayif Hasanov and Fariz
Namazly, have now been excluded from his defence, due to the fact that lawyers
are called as witnesses in the case.
The above
human rights defenders joined the previously imprisoned human rights
defenders Messrs. Anar Mammadli, Chairperson of the Election Monitoring
and Democracy Studies Centre (EMDSC) and Bashir Suleymani, Executive
Director of EMDSC. In May 2014, they were sentenced by the Court on
Grave Crimes to respectively to 5,5 years’ and 3,5 years’ imprisonment on
charges of “tax evasion”, “illegal entrepreneurship”, and “abuse of authority”.
The
unprecedented 2014 crackdown on NGOs and their leaders had been immediately
preceded by new legislative acts targeting civil society. New anti-NGO laws,
adopted in 2014, provide the authorities with additional powers for temporary
suspension and permanent banning of national and foreign NGOs, and introduce
additional administrative requirements and increased checks. Non-registered
NGOs cannot be considered recipients of grants anymore. While working under
non-registered grants is an administrative offence, the courts now tend to
consider such funds as personal income in an attempt to persecute their
recipients for tax evasion under criminal law. In addition, the bank accounts
of several NGOs and representatives were frozen upon request of the General
Prosecutor’s Office, including those of the Media Rights Institute, the
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Public Union, the Democracy and Human
Rights Resource Centre, the Azerbaijan Lawyers Association, and the Centre for
National and International Studies. To sum up, the new laws have allowed the
government to cut off funding of NGOs by arbitrarily freezing bank accounts of
organisations and their leaders, while making it compulsory, and practically
impossible, to register new grants.
However, the
situation of human rights defenders, activists and journalists in Azerbaijan
has been quickly deteriorating already since early 2011, when hundreds of
pro-democracy demonstrators took to the streets. Those were outnumbered by
security forces, dozens of activists were detained, as the authorities clearly
feared an Arab Spring-like revolution. A widespread repression of civil
activists, opposition members and journalists was launched by the authorities.
Ahead of the presidential elections of October 2013, the crackdown even
intensified, accompanied by new repressive laws to further stifle civil
society. Physical attacks against opposition members, ill-treatment in prison
of human rights defenders, judicial harassment and violent repression of
demonstrators increased.
Notably,
youth activists have been intensely targeted. In March and April 2013 the
authorities arrested activists of the pro-democracy “NIDA” Civic Movement: Mr.
Mammad Azizov, Mr. Bakhtiyar Guliyev, Mr. Shahin Novruzlu, Mr. Rashadat
Akhundov, Mr. Uzeyir Mammadli, Mr. Rashad Hasanov, Mr. Zaur Gurbanli, as well
as Ilkin Rustamzade. They were charged with “illegally obtaining,
keeping or selling drugs” (under Article 234.1 of the Criminal Code), “illegally
obtaining, keeping, carrying weapons, explosives” (Article 228.1 of the
Criminal Code) and later on also with “planning to organise public disorder”.
They have all been sentenced to between 6 and 8 years in prison.
The
situation of journalists is similarly dire. Mr. Hilal Mammadov, a
defender of the rights of the Talysh ethnic minority and Editor-in-chief of the
Tolishi-Sado (Voice of Talysh) newspaper, remains in prison. He
was arrested on June 21, 2012, and sentenced to five years in prison following
unfair proceedings lodged on the basis of spurious criminal offences relating
to “illegal selling of drugs”, “high treason”, and “incitement to national,
racial, social and religious hatred and hostility”. In its November 2013
opinion on the case, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that
“the charges of treason and incitement to national, racial, social and
religious hatred and hostility are based on Mr. Mammadov’s legitimate
exercise of the right of freedom of expression (…)” and requested his immediate
release with compensation.
Mr. Emil
Huseynov, the Head of the leading media rights NGO, Institute for
Reporters' Freedom and
Safety, went into hiding as the offices were raided by the police on August 8,
2014. Another human rights defender and journalist, Mr. Ilqar Nasibov, working for the
Resource Centre for Development of Democracy and NGOs in Nakhchivan City, was
brutally attacked on August 21, 2014. Mr. Nasibov was hospitalised with
multiple fractures and injuries. At the same time a criminal case was opened
against him by his assailant for “deliberate infliction of less serious injury”
(Art. 127.1 of the Criminal Code). Before the hearing he was forbidden from
leaving the exclave of Nakhichivan, which does not allow him to get adequate
medical help and is an excessive preventive measure, which usually prohibits
departure from the country but not one of its regions. Mr. Nasibov's assailant,
Mr. Farid Askerov, subsequently confessed guilt in the framework of a hearing
and asked Mr. Nasibov for forgiveness. Charges against Mr. Nasibov were then
taken back.
At the same time, on October 17, 2014 the President of
Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a decree of amnesty, releasing 84 prisoners,
including three pro-democracy activists, Messrs. Shahin Novruzlu, Elsever
Mursalli and Bakhtiyar Guliyev, associated with the NIDA movement, as well as
Mr. Hasan Huseynli, Head of the NGO “Perfect Citizen”. Back in June and
July 2014, the three NIDA members had applied for pardon, quit NIDA, and
announced their support to the authorities of Azerbaijan.
In early August, amidst mounting tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh, Mr. Huseinly
issued a statement claiming that he should not be considered a political
prisoner, that he hoped to be acquitted by the Court of Appeal and that the
Azerbaijani Army and the President were “the guarantors of a strong and secure
Azerbaijan”. The Observatory is concerned about the circumstances and reasons
of such actions, and strongly fears that they could have been subject to pressure
in detention. Such appeals and statements are a typical instruments used by the
authorities to put pressure on activists, humiliate them and discourage others
to engage in similar civic movements.
In the light of this situation, the Observatory calls
upon the authorities of Azerbaijan to:
- Guarantee the right to defence of all detained human
rights defenders by ending the deprivation of her lawyers and put an end to the
practice of depriving human rights defenders of their lawyers by calling them
as witnesses of the cases;
- Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and
psychological integrity of all detained human rights defenders, and all human
rights defenders in Azerbaijan;
- Immediately and unconditionally release all detained
human rights defenders, since their detentions are arbitrary and only aim at
sanctioning their human rights activities;
- Put an end to any kind of harassment - including at
the judicial and investigatory levels - against all detained human rights
defenders, and more generally all human rights defenders in Azerbaijan;
- Conform with the provisions of the UN Declaration on
Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations
on December 9, 1998, especially:
Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right,
individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the
protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the
national and international levels”;
Article 5, which underscores the right of every individual
to form, join, and participate in non-governmental organizations; and
Article 12.2, which provides that the State shall
“take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent
authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against
any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination,
pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her
legitimate exercise of his or her rights”;
- Ensure in all circumstances respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rights standards and international instruments ratified by Azerbaijan.
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