Bundestag deputies meet with human rights defenders in Baku
On 1 March, human rights defender Rufat Safarov, lawyer Zibeida Sadigova and lawyer Khalid Agaliyev met in Baku with eight deputies representing different factions of the Legal Committee of the German Bundestag.
The delegation is headed by Mrs Elisabeth Winkelmeyer-Becker, chairwoman of the Bundestag Legal Committee.
Rufat Safarov told Turan that the meeting held at the German Embassy discussed the current human rights situation in Azerbaijan, repressive environment, political and criminal persecution; the situation in media, civil society and human rights organisations. The issue of activists deported from Germany and then arrested in Azerbaijan on false charges was raised separately.
Tortures of opposition activists and mass arrests of religious people were also touched upon.
Note that German Ambassador to Azerbaijan Ralph Horlemann and Ambassador's Counsellor Marcel Viethor took part in the meeting.
Politics
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The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OPHRD), a joint program of the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has called for the urgent release of activist Rufat Safarov from prison in Azerbaijan. It has launched a campaign in support of the Azerbaijani human rights defender. https://www.omct.org/en/resources/urgent-interventions/arbitrary-detention-and-judicial-harassment-against-rufat-safarov
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