On April 25, French President Francois Hollande came with a brief visit to Baku after Yerevan. It was a necessary diplomatic move, "to avoid the feeling of humiliation of the two neighboring countries," writes the French Le Monde.
In the previous visit to Baku in May 2014 Hollande already raised the issue of the human rights activist Leyla Yunus before Ilham Aliyev.
During the meeting with Yunus in the French embassy in Baku, Hollande handed her the Legion of Honor for the tireless defense of civil society. Three months after meeting with Hollande Leyla Yunus was arrested on charges of "treason" and "espionage" in favor of Armenia, and after five days her husband, historian Arif Yunus was also arrested.
Many international human rights organizations have asked Hollande to raise the issue of release of the couple Yunus before Aliyev. However, Aliyev's government is insensitive to the protests, given the interests of the Western powers in oil reserves in Azerbaijan.
Jean-Marie Burden, director of the French branch of Human Rights Watch in an open letter to President Hollande wrote: "We urge you to make clear that neither you nor French officials will go to the opening ceremony of the European Games, if all human rights defenders are not released," wrote Le Monde. -02D-
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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