Azerbaijan needs an independent court

Baku/17.08.21/Turan: The Baku Serious Crimes Court passed a verdict  against Yunis Safarov and 11 more accused of conspiracy against the former head of the executive branch of Ganja Elmar Veliyev and his bodyguard Gasim Ashpazov.

Yunis Safarov was sentenced to life imprisonment. Other defendants were also convicted. However, in the course of the investigation in this case, questions arose about how professionally the investigation was carried out, and about the fairness of the trial.

Recently, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) Agil Humbatov was sentenced by the Khazar district court of the capital to four months in prison on charges of deliberately causing grievous bodily harm. (Article 126 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan)

The Baku Serious Crimes Court is preparing to consider the case of the former Prosecutor General and Ambassador Eldar Hasanov. He is charged with abuse of office with grave consequences (Article 308.2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan), misuse of budget funds (Article 308-1.1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan), large scale embezzlement (Article 179.3.2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan), legalization of large sums of money obtained by criminal means forgery of documents (Article 313 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan).

Eldar Hasanov, who is under arrest, refuses to testify in protest against the illegality, unfoundedness, bias and arbitrariness of his imprisonment.

As we can see, against the background of messages about the impending mitigation of the political climate in the country, persecutions for political reasons continue. What is really going on? Bashir Suleymanli, a human rights activist, head of the Institute of Civil Rights, answers these and other questions in the "Difficult Question" program.

According to the human rights activist, political opponents have been persecuted in Azerbaijan for 30 years. There was even a period in the history of the country when up to 1000 political prisoners were imprisoned. From time to time, some of the political prisoners were released, but such concessions were short-lived. In the last 10-15 years, the number of political prisoners has generally not exceeded 150-200 people. From time to time, some of them find themselves free, but after a while, others take their places. The persecution continues.

“Human rights organizations, both domestic and international, were unable to take serious steps that could put an end to this process,” Suleymanli lamented.

In his opinion, in order to achieve a real shift in solving the problem of political prisoners, first, it is necessary to achieve the creation of an independent court and the liberalization of legislation. “The problem of political prisoners is directly related to the absence of an independent court,” the human rights activist claims. —0—