US Department of State: Azerbaijan Has Serious Human Rights Violations

The US State Department released its traditional annual report on the state of human rights in countries around the world.

In an extensive section on Azerbaijan (29 pages) it is spoken about the facts of serious violations of human rights and freedoms, political arrests, corruption, and so forth.

Among the violations referred to in the first place is the fact of "control of separatists supported by Armenia of most of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven other Azerbaijani territories." The State Commission on Prisoners of War reports about 3,866 people missing during the Karabakh conflict.

The government and human rights defenders have reported a decrease in hazing facts in the armed forces.

The UN Working Group during its visit to Azerbaijan received a large number of allegations of torture and ill-treatment in police custody. Human rights activists and the media have reported four cases of torture leading to death.

The UN Working Group's report also referred to the case of the arrest and torture of a N!DA activist Elgiz Gahraman, which for 6 days was tormented by the Office for Combating Organized Crime of the Ministry of Interior, demanding to confess to the crime.

Cases of mass torture occurred after the arrest of a large group of believers in the village of Nardaran, where two detainees were killed after being beaten by police officers.

The leader of the Islamists Thale Bagirzade for a few days was beaten with a demand to defame opposition leaders Jamil Hasanli and Ali Kerimli. At the same time, a lawyer was not allowed to him for a month.

The authorities failed to investigate complaints of N!DA activists Bayram Mammadov and Giyas Ibrahimov, who were tortured and beaten, demanding an apology for the fact that they had painted slogans on the statue of Heydar Aliyev.

Facts of inhuman treatment took place in the Prison Service, where few prisons meet the international standards, with no proper medical treatment, high corruption, no ventilation, and terrible state of the lavatories. The worst conditions are in the Gobustan prison.

Despite the prohibition of arbitrary arrests, the authorities do not comply with this requirement of the law. The largest number of arrests (185) occurred during the protests against the referendum on September 26 about changes in the Constitution.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service were responsible for numerous violations of the rights and freedoms of citizens and corruption. The main target of the law enforcement agencies is members of the opposition, which are detained in dozens, are not allowed lawyers and subjected to physical and mental torture. Recorded are numerous cases of arbitrary arrests based on false charges (resistance to the police, drugs, weapons, tax evasion, etc.).

On March 18 the President pardoned 148 prisoners, and 14 of them were political prisoners. Some of them were forced to write penitential appeals to the head of state. The country has no independent judiciary, judges and prosecutors receive instructions from the presidential administration and the Ministry of Justice.

Even the formal courts are under control, when allowed into the hall are only dummies, dressed police and security workers. In such trials, the judge acts more as a prosecutor, the accused and the witnesses are dictated what to say and the lawyers are removed from the audience. The authorities deny licenses of lawyers defending opposition members and civil society activists.

According to NGOs, the number of political prisoners ranges from 119 to 160. Among them, there are a lot of politicians and relatives of primarily political refugees, to which the government cannot reach. The courts continue to ignore the European Court of Human Rights decision on canceling the decisions of local courts.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service monitor telephone conversations and the Internet without court decisions, conduct arbitrary arrests of critics of the authorities or their relatives.

The freedom of speech and expression is severely restricted and violated. The authorities carry out these repressions against members of the movement REAL, Popular Front Party and civil society activists.

Subjected to severe pressure are the opposition and independent media. A real war has been declared to the newspaper Azadlig, which was forced to stop its publication due to financial constraints.

A number of employees of the newspaper were forced to emigrate after the columnist Seymur Hazy was convicted on false charges.

Similarly subjected to pressure are resources cooperating with Meydan TV, against whom criminal cases have been filed and they have been forbidden to leave the country. The authorities failed to investigate the facts of physical pressure on journalists.

In 2016, 29 court cases were brought against the media and journalists, and the amount of compensation required was 1.3 million AZN ($ 720,000). The courts applied fines totaling 95,000 manats ($ 53,000). The authorities do not provide assistance to opposition media, and prohibit giving them publicity. The media apply self-censorship.

The authorities occasionally block access to the websites of Radio Liberty, Voice of America, Azadlig and Meydan TV.

Regular legislative changes are made that limit the freedom of the Internet and the punishment of defamation on the Internet by anonymous users.

Facebook is continuously monitored by the authorities and any criticism of the authorities by bloggers is prosecuted. Currently some 10 bloggers are in prison on trumped-up charges. Authorities ban the employment of members of the opposition.

Severely restricted is the freedom of assembly. Protests are repressed and the participants are arrested.

Prosecutors continue criminal proceedings against 40 NGOs, which began in 2014. Their accounts are frozen, and the leaders are banned from traveling abroad. Civil society is deprived of the opportunity to work with foreign donors.

The referendum on September 26 was considered by local and international observers as the legalization of a monarchy. All active critics of these changes were repressed.

Corruption remains one of the most serious problems that are clearly manifested in the criminal case against a large group of MNS officers, management of the Ministry of Communications and the chief of the International Bank of Azerbaijan.

Cases of violations of the rights of ethnic and sexual minorities, labor rights, property rights, and gender equality have been recorded. Highlighted among these facts are accidents at sea, which led to the death of dozens of oil workers.  -02D-