International organizations are calling for the release of Anar Mammadli

International structures continue to call on official Baku to release the well-known human rights defender and public activist Anar Mammadli. "We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Anar Mammadli," the  statement of the Norwegian Human Rights House. The organization demands that the Azerbaijani authorities: drop all charges against him, respect international obligations, comply with the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights on the Mammadli group, stop the persecution of independent voices in the country and release all political prisoners, respect the rights of independent civil society and the media.

"We call on the United Nations and the Council of Europe, as well as the European Union, to use COP29 in Baku for this," the statement said. In turn, Amnesty International researcher for the South Caucasus Natalie Notadze, on behalf of her organization, also called for the immediate release of Anar Mammadli.

"The authorities must immediately stop the campaign of intimidation of civil society and stop detaining their critics ahead of the COP29 meeting in Baku in November," she said. Anar Mammadli's arrest is an indicator of abuses of justice to silence government critics. Illegal searches, restrictions on access to lawyers, torture and ill-treatment in custody, as well as arbitrary arrests are an attempt to silence the opposition, she noted.