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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As a result of the preliminary investigation, the charge against Aziz Orujov, director of the internet TV channel Kanal 13, under Article 206.3.2 of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code (smuggling committed by a group of individuals in conspiracy) has been dropped. The case has been sent to court only under Article 188.2 of the Criminal Code (unauthorized construction on land without ownership rights). This was reported to Turan by Orujov's wife, journalist Lamia Orujeva.
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Today, the Baku Serious Crimes Court delivered a verdict in the case of public activist Ilhamiz Guliyev. The court reclassified the charges from Article 234.4.3 (illegal drug trafficking with intent to sell in large quantities) to a lighter charge under Article 234.1-1 (illegal acquisition, possession, manufacturing, processing, or transportation of narcotic substances or psychotropic substances in large quantities without the intent to distribute) of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code and sentenced the activist to three years in prison.
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On December 12, the Union for "Freedom for Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan" published an updated list of political prisoners, which now includes the names of 331 individuals.
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On Thursday, Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, reiterated Baku’s demand for the termination of the European Union’s observer mission on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The mission was initially agreed with Baku as a temporary measure, but its activities have since become permanent. Moreover, the composition of the mission and its mandate have been "expanded," Hajiyev said in an interview with journalists.
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