Sanctions against Aliyev Government Remain in Force

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly held a hearing in Tbilisi on the situation in the field of human rights in Azerbaijan.

At the hearing, a speech was made by the head of the Helsinki Commission of the US Congress, Chris Smith, who is the author of the bill act of democracy in Azerbaijan, providing for sanctions against high-ranking officials involved in human rights violations.

Smith said that if repression in Azerbaijan did not stop, the application of sanctions would be inevitable.

Smith’s speech was spread by the Internet channel Azerbaycansaati.tv.

"Twice in 2013 and 2014 with a group of congressmen and senators I met with Aliyev in Baku. We, of course, talked about fundamental human rights, freedom of the press and of speech," said Smith.

He praised the release of some of the political prisoners, noting that the practice of arbitrary arrest with violence had not stopped in the country.

Smith also rejected the accusations of official Baku that his bill is a matter of the Armenian lobby's hands.

The act of democracy in Azerbaijan is the likeness of the same act adopted previously in relation to Belarus and its President Lukashenko.

Smith believes that this act helped the liberation of political prisoners. He also informed that the Azerbaijani government signed a contract with one of the leading US law firms to deal with the adoption of the act. However, the document will be adopted by the Congress in any case, unless all political prisoners are released and human rights problems are addressed, Smith said. -03D-