PACE President Meets with Human Rights Defenders

Baku / 09/12/19 / Turan: PACE President Liliane Maury Pasquier, who is visiting Baku, met with a group of human rights activists on September 12.

Arzu Abdullayeva, co-chair of the National Committee of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly, told Turan that the head of PACE noted the importance of meeting with human rights defenders before negotiations with officials begin.

During the meeting, problems disturbing Azerbaijani society were raised, including restrictions on the activities of NGOs.

Touching upon the issue of political persecution of citizens, human rights activists noted that, despite the decrease in the number of new criminal cases, the number of administrative arrests has increased. Moreover, while arrests were ordered from 10 to 30 days before, now they last up to 2 months.

As for the problem of political prisoners, the lists vary. This is due to the recognition of 52 political prisoners convicted on the Ganja events. Despite the ambiguous assessment of this issue by the human rights community, Abdullayeva pointed to the inhuman treatment of the defendants in this case at the preliminary investigation.

Regarding the situation of civil society, activists noted that the current reactionary law on NGOs negatively affects civil society institutions.

The PACE President was also informed about violations of democracy during the elections, the deprivation of lawyers of their jobs and the facts of harassment of public activists.

The meeting was also attended by human rights activists Novella Jafaroglu, Avaz Hasanov and Mehriban Zeynalova, journalist Mehman Huseynov, lawyer Asabali Mustafayev and others.

PACE President is on a visit to Azerbaijan on September 11-12. -06B--