The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Chair, Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal), called for the immediate release of Azerbaijani investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who was sentenced earlier on 1 September to 7 ½ years in prison.
“Ms. Ismayilova has earned several awards for her reporting. The reward she got today from her country’s justice system was a harsh prison term. It is clear to me that this is a politically motivated response to Ms. Ismayilova’s work to hold her country’s leaders accountable. With every journalist, human rights defender and civil society leader it harasses or jails, Azerbaijan distances itself further and further from democratic values and OSCE human dimension commitments.
I call on the authorities to abandon their authoritarian practices and immediately release Ms. Ismayilova, along with the numerous human rights defenders, civil society leaders and other journalists currently and unfairly behind bars,” - Santos said.
Chairperson Santos also reiterated her request to visit Ismayilova, which she first submitted to the government of Azerbaijan in February.
Ismayilova’s reporting for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty focused on alleged high-level corruption in Azerbaijan.
Chairperson Santos also noted that within the Helsinki Declaration, the wide-ranging final document endorsed by parliamentarians at the OSCE PA’s 2015 Annual Session, the Assembly “condemn[ed] the continued persecution and imprisonment on politically motivated charges of journalists and human rights defenders in several OSCE participating States and express[ed] its concern at the continued misuse of tax and administrative legislation to justify these acts.”
Santos once again expressed her openness to direct engagement with the Azerbaijani authorities on these matters. -0-
Politics
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Aide to the President of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev is on a visit to Iran, where he met with Adviser to the President of the Islamic Republic Mehdi Sanayi.
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On January 31, the trial of opposition politician Tofig Yagublu continued at the Baku Serious Crimes Court, where the examination of documents resumed. Yagublu pointed out the falsification of the search protocols related to the search at his home. He drew attention to the fact that the protocol stated that on December 14, 2023, at 16:00, the investigator completed the questioning of the "victim" and decided to conduct a search.
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Elvin Zeynalov, a religious activist living in the village of Mashtaga, was detained on January 31 around noon by individuals in plain clothes outside a store near his home. According to his relatives, later in the evening, Zeynalov was brought back home by people in black clothing, who conducted a search. They took Zeynalov's pants from the wardrobe, put marijuana in the pocket, then "seized" the drugs, filmed the video, and then took the activist away again.
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During the winter session of PACE at the Palais de l'Europe in Strasbourg, a "parallel event" was held on January 30 dedicated to the "alarming human rights crisis in Azerbaijan." The hearings were organized by the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) and PACE member, co-chair of the Group of Unified European Left (Group of the Unified European), Spanish parliamentarian Laura Castel Fort.
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