Baku's Nasimi District Court remanded the two men - Ilgar Mammadov, a political analyst and chair of the opposition group "REAL," and Tofig Yagublu, deputy chair of the opposition political party Musavat and a journalist with opposition daily Yeni Musavat - to two months' pretrial custody. A court also remanded Ismayilli residents Mirkazim Abdullayev and Elshen Ismayilli to two months' pretrial custody on the same charges.
"We're concerned that last month's violence will be used as a pretext to silence two outspoken government critics," said Giorgi Gogia, senior South Caucasus researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The authorities should release Mammadov and Yagublu from pretrial detention and produce credible evidence that the charges are justified."
According to a charge sheet issued by the Prosecutor General's Grave Crimes Investigation Department, Mammadov and Yagublu are accused of instigating protests and violence on January 24 in Ismayilli, a regional center about 200 kilometers northwest of Baku.
On January 24, several clashes took place between law enforcement and protesters calling for the governor's resignation. The protesters also expressed frustration with poverty, widespread unemployment, and corruption. Police used teargas and rubber bullets to quash the riots and restore order.
In the aftermath, dozens of people were arrested in Ismayilli; at least 12 remain in custody, facing criminal charges of looting and organizing riots. No investigation has been conducted into the legitimacy of the use of force by police.
Mammadov and Yagublu both traveled to Ismayilli on January 24 to find out what had happened. Yeni Musavat's founder told the media that Yagublu went to Ismayilli on a reporting assignment for the paper. Police detained him shortly after his arrival and several hours later ensured that he left the town.
To dispel concerns that the charges against Mammadov and Yagublu are spurious and politically motivated, the authorities should promptly disclose any credible evidence they have of activities the men engaged in that would constitute criminal wrongdoing, Human Rights Watch said.
"Azerbaijan's harsh political climate and this government's record of imprisoning people for political reasons suggests retaliation in this case," Gogia said. "We fear that the authorities are trying to put the blame for protests on government critics, instead of investigating the roots of the unrest."
The prosecutor's order designating Mammadov as a suspect (on file with Human Rights Watch) states that he and Yagublu persuaded two Ismayilli residents, Elshen Ismayilli and Mirkazim Abdullayev, and others to assemble "many people" in front of the local municipality and "convinced Abdullayev and Ismayilli to throw stones at law enforcement agents."
The order does not describe any evidence substantiating the accusations against Mammadov. Both men reject the allegations as ungrounded.
The recent arrests in Baku and Ismayilli came shortly after the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly adopted a report highly critical of the Azerbaijani government's human rights record. The assembly said that "it is alarmed by reports : about the alleged use of so-called fabricated charges against activists and journalists." It further elaborated that "the combination of the restrictive implementation of freedoms with unfair trials and the undue influence of the executive, results in systematic detentions of people who may be considered prisoners of conscience." -0-
Politics
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Armenia is not against the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group, but does not consider it appropriate to discuss this issue now. "In the context of peace, we consider it possible to make a decision on the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group. When peace is an established fact, the existence of such a format may raise questions," Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a press conference today. "The whole question is about the timing, we need to understand how effectively and correctly to turn such topics into a subject of discussion right now," the Armenian Prime Minister added.
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He expressed his willingness to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the border between the two countries. "A meeting with Ilham Aliyev could take place at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. I am open to such a format," Pashinyan said at a press conference today. According to Pashinyan, Armenia recently presented another proposal for a peace treaty to Azerbaijan.
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On August 31, Azerbaijan observes a "day of silence" before the Sunday’s early parliamentary elections for the unicameral Milli Majlis. All electoral campaigning is prohibited 24 hours before the voting. The early elections were initiated by the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party. This decision was motivated by the overlap of the scheduled elections in November with the global UN forum - the COP20 climate conference taking place in Baku.
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On August 30, at approximately 22:55, the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant in Metsamor was disconnected from the country's power grid, as reported by the Armenian Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure. The shutdown was caused by a lightning strike, which triggered the plant's safety systems to switch the station to a safe shutdown mode. Currently, the plant's staff is working on restarting the facility.
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