HRW Report, US Political Prisoner Initiative, Status of Tofig Yagublu and Bakhtiyar Hajiyev

Baku/13.01.23/Turan: In 2022, the human rights situation in Azerbaijan has not improved, annual report of the Human Rights Watch, published on January 12. On January 11, the US State Department announced the launch of the so-called "Without Just Cause" Initiative, which aims to release political prisoners held without good reason around the world, including Azerbaijani Elchin Mammad.

Currently, 15 political activists, including Tofig Yagublu and Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, continue their hunger strike.

Deputy Chairman of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan Seymour Hazi was not allowed to enter Georgia.

Rufat Safarov, a human rights activist and co-founder of the human rights organization “Line of Defense”, commented on these and other questions in the “Difficult Question” program.

According to him, the Human Rights Watch report reflects the repressive situation, the difficult situation with human rights in our country. True, the report still has certain shortcomings, which will be discussed below.

“In general, regarding the report, I can say that the political motivation of a number of court verdicts on charges of criminal offenses and administrative offenses did not escape the attention of its authors,” Safarov said.

The human rights activist noted the balance of the report, since it noted that Alizamin Salaev, Agil Maharramli, Saleh Rustamov and other political prisoners were released within the framework of the decree “On pardon” signed by the head of state in May.

Also, according to him, the report reflects the persecution of public activist Bakhtiyar Hajiyev and politician Tofig Yagublu, as well as the formal investigation into cases in connection with the attacks on Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, Tofig Yagublu and journalist Ayten Mammadova.

“As you know, in all cases, the criminals were identified and not detained,” the human rights activist stressed. Safarov also noted that the report pointed to the prosecution of journalist Avaz Zeynal and lawyer Elchin Sadigov on trumped-up charges.

The human rights activist expressed bewilderment that the report did not reflect the persecution of Ali Aliyev, chairman of the Citizens and Development Party.

“For some reason, I did not find any mention of Ali Aliyev in the report, who was convicted 4 times in a row - three times in the context of freedom of expression and once on charges of committing a crime against a person. Although, it is obvious that his persecution was politically motivated,” Safarov noted. ---0---