OSCE/ODIHR Director expresses concern on Anar Mammadli

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-