Winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which will last until January 30, has opened today in Strasbourg. The agenda of the session is: the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, the terrorist attacks in Paris, and the protection of freedom of speech in Europe. Discussions on the topic of freedom of speech will begin on January 29 at 13:00 Baku time. The draft resolution expressed particular concern over the freedom of media in Azerbaijan. The document mentions the case arrested journalist Khadija Ismailova in Azerbaijan, who investigated corruption among the country's top leadership. The resolution calls on Baku to immediately release her and the other imprisoned journalists, and to cease their harassment.
In addition, among the killed members of the press are the names of Azerbaijani journalist Elmar Huseynov and Rafiq Tagi.
PACE will also consider the question of the credentials of the Russian delegation. At the April session of PACE deprived the Russian delegation's voting rights until January, and ruled Russia from all governing bodies of the Assembly in connection with the annexation of the Crimea.
On Sunday, the State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin, who arrived in Strasbourg, responded to a request PACE President Anne Brasseur to help to release from custody a Ukrainian military servicewoman Hope Savchenko. Naryshkin said that Savchenko, who is accused of killing in the two Russian journalists in Donbass, will be released only if the court does find her guilty.
Brasseur insisted on the presence of Savchenko, elected to the Ukrainian parliament, at the opening session of the PACE Strasburge.-06D-
Politics
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On September 18, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov met with a delegation led by U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia Joshua Huck. The meeting focused on issues of bilateral and multilateral cooperation, the regional situation in the post-conflict period, and the prospects for normalizing relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, as reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "Despite efforts to create a positive dynamic in bilateral relations and cooperation prospects, biased opinions from certain U.S. officials negatively impact our bilateral relations," the statement noted.
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Dozens of international human rights organizations have sent a letter to Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Perri to urge him not to ratify the powers of the Azerbaijani delegation in PACE due to increasing repression following the presidential elections on February 7 and the parliamentary elections on September 1, 2024, which have led to unprecedented repression.
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On September 19, Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade will travel to Russia to participate in the XX International Muslim Forum. The event, themed "The Path to Peace: Dialogue as the Basis for Harmonious Coexistence," will take place in Moscow on September 21. The visit is at the invitation of the Chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia, Mufti Sheikh Ravil Gaynutdin.
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Economist and PhD candidate at Istanbul University Fazil Gasimov has been on a hunger strike for 97 days at the Penitentiary Service Medical Facility. On September 17, he was visited by representatives from the Baku office of the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to his lawyer Rovshan Rahimli. The lawyer stated that the Penitentiary Service is applying pressure on Gasimov to end his hunger strike.
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