Ambassador Janez Lenarcic, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), expressed concern about arrest of Anar Mammadli, chairperson of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDSC) in Azerbaijan, on grounds of alleged illegal entrepreneurship.
Noting that EMDSC is an established and professional citizen election observation group, Lenarcic said: "The reported arrest of Anar Mammadli is disturbing as it endangers citizen election observation, the role of which in ensuring the integrity of electoral processes has been recognized by all OSCE participating States, including the Republic of Azerbaijan".
EMDSC was created as the successor of the Election Monitoring Center, which had been deregistered as a non-governmental organization on 14 May 2008 by a district court at the request of the Ministry of Justice. An appeal of this case is currently pending before the European Court for Human Rights. Since 2008, EMDSC has faced challenges with registration, affecting their activities during the 9 October presidential election this year.
"We have raised our concerns with the authorities and requested clarification on this matter," Lenarcic added. "We will continue to follow this situation closely and hope this matter will be addressed in line with Azerbaijan's OSCE human dimension commitments."-0-
Politics
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At the early elections to the Milli Majlis on September 1, 806 people applied to the district election commissions to become candidates for deputies, the head of this structure Mazahir Panahov told at today's meeting of the Central Election Commission (CEC). According to him, the nomination of 532 candidates has already been approved.
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The trial of public activist Bakhtiyar Hajiyev continued in the Baku Serious Crimes Court on Friday. The court heard testimony from the secretary of the Yasamal district court session about the conflict between Hajiyev and the victim Ulviya Muradova (Alovlu) two years ago. He stated that Hajiyev and Muradova insulted each other, and Hajiyev hit her "several times".
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Economist Fazil Gasimov, who is on hunger strike for the 35th day, has been transferred to the medical and sanitary unit of the Baku pre-trial detention center-1, lawyer Rovshana Rahimova told Turan on the afternoon of July 19.
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The Tbilisi-based Institute for the Protection of Rights and Freedoms issued a statement in connection with the ban to Afghan Sadigov, the founder of the Azerbaijani website Azel.tv on travel from Georgia to third countries to the founder of the Azerbaijani website Azel.tv. The statement of the organization, established in 2018 by a group of Azerbaijani political emigrants, notes that Sadigov moved to Georgia in connection with the repression in Azerbaijan against human rights defenders, journalists and opposition activists.
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