CE rapporteurs on Azerbaijan sound the alarm

Baku/14.12.21/Turan: The co-rapporteurs of the Council of Europe on Azerbaijan are very concerned about the state of human rights in the country, and this prompted their recent statement calling for the release of Saleh Rustamov and an investigation into the brutal beating of Tofig Yagublu. One of them, Austrian MP Stefan Schennach, said this in an interview with Turan, answering the question of how he assesses the latest processes in Azerbaijan.

“It is very important for us to visit Azerbaijan again in early January. Saleh Rustamov's case is extremely disturbing, so we called on the authorities to urgently release him. The case of Tofig Yagublu is also extremely disturbing and we could not ignore it,” he said.

Azerbaijan is preparing to adopt a new law on media, which according to the opinion. experts will seriously limit the rights of journalists and freedom of speech. Is it possible for the Venice Commission to express its opinion?

In response to this question, Schennach said that the CE Monitoring Committee can send this document to the Venice Commission for evaluation.

“I hope for a constructive dialogue with the Azerbaijani authorities regarding this bill. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is over and the authorities must return to dialogue and positive action.

Among other things, the new law on the legal profession testifies that human rights defenders are no longer able to do their job,” Schennach said in conclusion. -16B-