"Azerbaijan is completing the worst year in terms of human rights, engaging in the New Year with dozens of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience," said a statement of the Institute of Reporters Freedom and Safety.
In addition, in the past year, the law was introduced a series of restrictive changes, was made illegal interference in the activities of NGOs and were harassed journalists and activists.
Nine journalists, two bloggers and three human rights defenders marked the New Year behind the bars.
They were arrested for political reasons during the implementation of their right to freedom of expression and assembly.
The head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Training Center (EMDTC) Anar Mammadli will not be able to celebrate the New Year at large either. He was arrested for the fact that, being in the monitoring of the presidential election on October 9, he denounced violations of the law. Three counts charged in the aggregate Mammadli to face imprisonment up to 16 years.
The statement contains the names of 25 opposition activists, journalists and bloggers contained in prison for political reasons. Among them are the head of the movement REAL Ilgar Mamedov, the deputy chairman of the party Musavat Tofig Yagublu, the chief editor of Tolyshi Sado Hilal Mamedov, seven young activists of NIDA, a member of the organization Free Youth Ilkin Rustamzade, etc.
In conclusion, the statement calls on the authorities to respect their international obligations in the field of fundamental freedoms, release all political prisoners, stop putting pressure on journalists and civil society activists. -1606D –
Politics
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On December 28 president of Ukrain called to the president of Azerbaijan İlham Aliyev.
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The preliminary investigation into the case of Russian oligarch and former "state minister" of the separatist regime of Nagorno-Karabakh, Ruben Vardanyan, has been completed. According to a joint statement by the Prosecutor General's Office and the State Security Service of Azerbaijan, Vardanyan has been charged under the following articles of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code: Article 100 (planning or waging aggressive war), Article 107 (deportation or coercion of the population), Article 109 (persecution), Article 112 (deprivation of liberty in violation of international law), Article 113 (torture), Article 114 (mercenary activities), Article 115 (violating laws and customs of war), Article 116 (violating laws and customs of war), Article 214 (terrorism), Article 214-1 (financing terrorism), Article 218 (organization of a criminal community), Article 228 (illegal trafficking in weapons), Article 270-1 (creating threats to aviation safety), Article 278 (violent seizure of power or violent retention of power, violent change of the constitutional order of the state), Article 279 (creation of illegal armed formations), Article 318 (illegal crossing of the Azerbaijani state border).
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On December 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin called Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, as reported by the Kremlin's press service. During the conversation, the issues related to the crash of the AZAL passenger plane on December 25 near the city of Aktau were discussed in detail. "Vladimir Putin expressed his apologies for the tragic incident occurring in Russian airspace and once again conveyed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured," the statement emphasized.
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On December 28, the trial of Abzas Media began, with the prosecutor reading the indictment. At the start of the session at the Baku Serious Crimes Court, the accused, the chief editor of Abzas Media, Sevinc Vagifgizi, filed a motion to disqualify the court panel. She argued that the current composition of the judges could not conduct an impartial investigation, as two of the three judges had previously ruled on cases involving political prisoners.
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