UFPPA Calls to Release Political Prisoners and to Investigate Torture

Baku / 18.04.19 / Turan: Despite some steps to release political prisoners, the human rights situation in Azerbaijan continues to be depressing.

This is stated in the report of the Union for the Freedom of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan (UFPPA) on the state of human rights in January-April 2019, released on April 17.

The beginning of the year was marked by the continuation of fabricated cases against political prisoners already convicted - the activist of the Popular Front Party Mammad Ibrahim, the religious activist Telman Shiraliyev and the blogger Mehman Huseynov.

Ibrahim and Shiraliyev received new sentences.

However, after the protests of the local and international public, the appellate court released them, and the new charges were dropped from the blogger Huseynov.

At the same time, the authorities began to actively prosecute citizens in administrative matters.

This process began to be actively pursued on the eve of and after the multi-thousand opposition rally on January 19, the statement said.

Since the beginning of the year, more than fifty activists have been arrested administratively for political reasons. These arrests take place without a fair trial. Opposition activists are sentenced on the same article - refusal of subordination to the police. In the role of witnesses are the police themselves.

In addition to arrests, hundreds of participants in the January 19 rally were detained, summoned to the police, threatened with dismissal from work, etc.

Since the beginning of the year, trials of accused on the Ganja events have been held.

On July 3, 2018, in Ganja, an attempt was made on the head of the executive power of the city, Elmar Veliyev. A native of Ganja, Yunis Safarov wounded Elmar Veliyev and his bodyguard.

After that, in social networks a protest action was scheduled for July 10 in front of the Ganja city administration. The protesters protested against the hard work style of the former chief executive of Ganja E. Veliyev. On July 10, the MIA reported on the unrest in Ganja, during which two police officers were killed. Following this, the security forces began to carry out mass arrests among believers. More than 60 people were arrested and prosecuted. Another 6 people were killed "while providing armed resistance," as indicated in the State Security Service reports. The investigation into the facts of these killings was not carried out.

Two groups of 14 people accused of the Ganja events have already been convicted. They received sentences ranging from 6 to 8 years in prison. Their relatives declare cruel torture of the accused with the purpose of giving confessions during the investigation.

Courts handed down sentences based on inadequate evidence. The motions of the defense were not satisfied. Some were defended by lawyers appointed at the expense of the state, who did nothing to protect their rights.

UFPPA found in these cases a violation of the articles 3 (prohibition of torture), 6 (the right to a fair trial) and 13 (the right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

UFPPA will consider the issue of recognizing convicted political prisoners.

Referring to the March decree on pardon and the release of more than 50 political prisoners, UFPPA considers this act "inferior" for there are still 87 political prisoners in prison.

Moreover, the subsequent after pardon arrests of the former prisoner of conscience Bayram Mammadov and some other activists showed that the "reforms" declared by the authorities are imitative in nature.

The subsequent arrests of Bayram Mammadov and other activists (in an administrative procedure) showed that the "reforms" are cosmetic, not consecutive.

In Azerbaijan, there is a "legitimized" practice of torture, and the most egregious facts were the killing under torture of military personnel and civilians in the Terter district without trial.

This was reported by the representative and co-founder of UFPPA, Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy Leyla Yunus, speaking at a hearing on the PACE Human Rights Committee on April 9, the statement says.

UFPPA demanded the release of all political prisoners, the organization of a special state commission with the participation of civil society representatives to investigate murders under torture of military personnel and civilians in the Terter region in May-July 2017, as well as the restoration of the institution of representation (human rights defenders) to protect the rights of citizens in courts.

The authorities in Baku reject the existence of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. They deny persecution of citizens for political reasons and declare that they were brought to criminal liability for criminal offenses, although they are recognized as political prisoners by human rights activists.

UFPPA was established in November 2018 by human rights activists Leyla Yunus, Elshan Hasanov, and Hilal Mammadov, and also the head of the Union of Intellectuals of Azerbaijan Eldaniz Guliyev. -06D--