The human rights situation is the worst over the past 20 years

The situation  with human rights and the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan  was discussed at a meeting of the Committee for Protection of Civil Society (CPCS.)

The cause for the  hearings have prompted alarms about the deterioration of the health of a number of political prisoners, in particular Leyla and Arif Yunus, an attack on the leader of the REAL Movement Ilgar Mamedov in jail.

According to the CPCS coordinator, co-chairman of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Arzu Abdullayeva, the human rights situation in Azerbaijan is the worst over the past  20 years.

Until recently the political prisoners were subjected to moral pressure,   but the case with Ilgar Mammadov revealed a new dangerous trend - the use of physical effects on the convicted activists.

As a way out, Abdullayeva proposed to consolidate the work of civil society to protect the rights of political prisoners and to strengthen contacts with the Committee on the monitoring of places of detention at the Ministry of Justice, and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Human Rights.

Executive Secretary of the REAL Movement Natig Jafarli said that the pressure on  I.Mamedov aims to force him to write a petition for pardon, which he will never do it.

Azerbaijan's civil society should initiate the creation under the Strasbourg Court  the ad hoc group, which  can speed up the consideration of complaints  on political affairs in Azerbaijan.

Jafarli said that the trip to the region and meetings with people show that the  civil society  is replaced by religious structures, growing radicalism.

Head of the monitoring of political prisoners Elshan Hasanov noted the need to strengthen efforts to improve local and international attention to the problem of political prisoners.

Lawyer Khalid Bagirov urged human rights activists to prepare expert opinions on matters of political prisoners because the Strasbourg Court attaches great importance to the views from the field.

The ECHR has accelerated the consideration of complaints from  Azerbaijan, and at the final stage of communication  are the cases of Rasul Jafarov, Intigam Aliyev, Leyla Yunus.

In September, the Committee of Ministers may adopt stricter measures against Azerbaijan if the decision of the European Court for release I.Mamedov is not executed.

"However, the sanctions should not be against the state, but against specific human rights violators - investigators, prosecutors and judges," he said.

Following the meeting, it was decided to take an appeal to the country  on the problem of political prisoners. Due to illness of  Leyla  and Arif Yunus  to raise the issue of early replacement of their  arrest to house arrest.

Special concern was also expressed about the health of journalist Aynur Imranova  who cannot  leave for Turkey for the operation  because of the ban of  prosecutors.

* The CPCS was created in 2009 when the first wave of reactionary amendments  were made to the law on NGOs. Then it included about 100 independent NGOs, including those organizations whose leaders are now under arrest. Currently, due to the criminal prosecution of many NGOs and arrests of some of their  leaders the CPCS  unites about 20 activists. -05C06-