IRFS on Persecution of Dissidents in Azerbaijan

Baku /23.12.17/Turan: The Institute for Reporters" Freedom and Safety (IRFS) stated that it condemns the Azerbaijani authorities for politically motivated judgments handed down to leading Azerbaijani online critics, popular anti-corruption blogger Mehman Huseynov and head of Kanal13 internet television Aziz Orujov. The organization demands their immediate and unconditional release.

The organization says that on 15 December, a court in Baku sentenced Aziz Orujov, detained since 2 May, to a six-year imprisonment on politically-motivated charges of power abuse. On the same day, the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict against IRFS Board Chairman and anti-corruption blogger Mehman Huseynov, who was sentenced by the court of first instance to 2 years in prison on defamation charges on 3 March 2017.

The arrests of Mehman Huseynov and Aziz Orujov are aimed at weakening the functioning social networks in Azerbaijan, the IRFS statement says.

According to IRFS, in cases where authorities cannot pursue online critics living abroad, the victims are their close relatives.

Since the beginning of the year, local and international independent media have been blocked without a court decision.

DDos attacks on independent media and unauthorized hacking accounts of popular critics of the regime continued.

The army of hired trolls engaged in spreading disinformation and fake news has significantly expanded, and the number of anonymous and open threats of critics has increased, IRFS says.

IRFS observes with dismay that, against the backdrop of attacks by the corrupt authoritarian regime on freedom of expression on the internet, the global ICT giants such as Microsoft, Google and Facebook are investing in the IT infrastructure of Azerbaijan, placing the irregional servers in the country and setting up these servers on the basis of the data centers whose ultimate beneficiaries are high-level corrupt officials or their close relatives.

IRFS encourages private investors to reconsider their plans and curtail the deployment of their servers in the country, and international financial institutions not to give out support for ICT projects related to the ruling elite of Azerbaijan.

IRFS calls for the introduction of restrictive sectoral sanctions against Azerbaijani government agencies that prohibit them from supplying equipment and software that would violate and restrict the rights of Internet users.

IRFS calls on governments of Western countries committed to democracy and human rights protection to launch individual sanctions that prohibit entry into their territories, as well as the seizure of foreign assets of Azerbaijani corrupt officials involved in repression.

IRFS calls on the authorities to immediately and unconditionally release from prison all illegally convicted victims of attacks on freedom of speech. -06DD-