Strasbourg, 13.08.2015 - “I am shocked and outraged by the sentencing of Leyla and ArifYunus for eight-and-a-half and seven years of imprisonment, respectively,” said Anne Brasseur, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
“The Council of Europe has repeatedly urged the authorities to stop the unprecedented crackdown on civil society – including reprisals and judicial harassment of human rights defenders and independent media – and address human rights problems in the country,” she said.
“Despite these appeals, the situation has not improved. It has worsened. The people targeted, the type of charges, the length of sentences, obvious shortcomings in trials, all put in question the authorities’ willingness to respect the fundamental values of the Council of Europe. Today’s decision is further proof of serious and systemic human rights problems in Azerbaijan,” continued the President.
“In its June 2015 resolution on Azerbaijan, the Assembly called the authorities to ‘put an end to systemic repression of human rights defenders, the media and those critical of the government’, to ‘release all political prisoners’ and to ‘stop the reprisal of journalists and others who express critical opinions’. Today’s decision shows that these appeals have fallen on deaf ears in Baku. Therefore, I once again urge the authorities to take a step back and re-examine their approach to human rights, in line with the commitments they have made to the values and standards of the Council of Europe.”
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Secretary General Jagland will request from the Azerbaijani authorities the full details of the judgment and the evidence presented against the defendants. In view of the known systemic deficiencies in the Azerbaijani judicial system and the worrying trend of increasing cases against human rights defenders and journalists, which in turn has a chilling effect on freedom of expression in the country, he is of the opinion that the conviction should eventually be examined by the European Court of Human Rights.-0-
Politics
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On 26 July "Platform III of the Republic" made a statement which drew attention to the unlawful seizure of electronic devices of underage children of the arrested head of this structure Akif Gurbanov.
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From 19 to 26 July, 24 automatic rifles, 1 machine gun, 9 rifles, 28 grenades, 441 shells, 3118 cartridges of different calibre and other ammunition were found in Khankendi, the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry reported. During the mentioned period, the police found 1 machine gun, 50 grenades, 7 fuses, 3 shells and 320 cartridges of different calibre in Shusha.
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President Ilham Aliyev has approved by decree the Azerbaijan-Kazakh intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in military intelligence defense sector. The document was signed in Baku on 7 June 2024.
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At the trial of the opposition politician Tofig Yagublu, the statement of Elnur Vaqifoglu, another accused, was heard at the Baku Serious Crimes Court.
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