Azerbaijan: co-rapporteurs call upon authorities to review Mehman Huseynov�s case
Baku/04.01.19/Turan: The co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of Azerbaijan, Sir Roger Gale (United Kingdom, EC) and Stefan Schennach (Austria, SOC) have expressed their deep concern at the new charges brought against an anti-corruption Azerbaijani blogger and Chairman of the Institute for Reporters" Freedom and Safety (IRFS), Mehman Huseynov, who is currently serving the remaining two months of his two-year prison sentence. It is reported by PACE.
Mehman Husejnov has been detained since March 2017 on defamation charges, after he had published a series of articles revealing cases of alleged corruption and torture by Azerbaijani officials. On 26 December 2018 he was accused of "resisting a representative of the authorities with the use of violence dangerous to his health and life", which is liable to lead to his imprisonment for up to seven years.
"Unfortunately, there are justified grounds for the assumption that these new charges are clearly politically motivated and clearly designed to further silence a prominent human rights activist whom we consider a political prisoner," said the co-rapporteurs. "Furthermore, we are alarmed by the fact that Mehman Huseynov has embarked upon a hunger strike as the only means available to him to protest about his plight," they added.
"We call upon the Azerbaijani authorities to review his case as a matter of absolute priority," they concluded.--0--
-
- Want to say
- 4 January 2019 18:21
-
- Social
- 4 January 2019 22:55
Politics
-
Today, Azerbaijan celebrates Victory Day, marking its triumph in the Patriotic War of 2020. This decisive conflict culminated in the liberation of Azerbaijani territories that had been occupied by Armenia since 1992-1994.
-
Lieutenant General Hikmet Mirzayev, Deputy Minister of Defense and Commander of the Azerbaijani Ground Forces, has been awarded the rank of Colonel General by a decree from the head of state.
-
The fifth summit of the European Political Community (EPC) is currently taking place in the capital of Hungary, Budapest. Leaders from many countries are participating in the event. However, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is not attending the summit. Official Baku has not commented on this matter.
-
It is difficult to predict the future of Azerbaijan-U.S. relations under Donald Trump, said Ali Kerimli, leader of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (PFPA), in an interview with Turan agency. "Since Trump's team has not yet been formed, it is unclear who will be appointed Secretary of State, who is responsible for foreign policy. It is also unclear what priorities Trump's team will have for the Caucasus region," Kerimli noted. At the same time, certain assumptions can be made about Trump's policy.
Leave a review