"We fully support the human right to exercise the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Azerbaijani Constitution and the government’s international commitments and obligations", a State Department spokesperson noted on Friday in response to TURAN's request to comment on the latest sentencing of jailed opposition party leader and government's vocal critic in Azerbaijan.
Ali Aliyev, chairman of the Citizens and Development Party, was convicted yesterday for the third time on defamation charges.
"We urge authorities to create an environment conducive to the exercise of human rights by allowing members of political parties, independent media, NGOs, religious organizations and defense lawyers to operate freely", a State Department spokesperson said.
Human rights groups and local activists view Aliyev's case as another sign of how defamation laws are being used against political opponents and civil society activists in the country. Aliyev himself called the court decision politically motivated.
Alex Raufoglu
Washington D.C.
Politics
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Members of the National Preventive Group under the Ombudwosman of Azerbaijan visited journalists and activists in the Baku pre-trial detention center-1, the press service of the office of the Commissioner for Human Rights reports.
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Yesterday, Aliza Bin-Noun, Political Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, held talks at the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry and the presidential administration. "I held fruitful interministerial consultations with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Fariz Rzayev. Our strong bilateral relations have been thoroughly discussed in search of ways to further develop them.
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The International Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders has called for the release of Anar Mammadli and other political prisoners in Azerbaijan. The petition, signed by 30 civil society organizations belonging to the Observatory, calls on the Azerbaijani authorities to drop all charges against Anar Mammadli, stop the persecution of independent voices in the country and unconditionally release all political prisoners.
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On 8 May, the Khatai district court of Baku did not satisfy the petition to transfer well-known human rights defender in the field of elections Anar Mammadli under house arrest. This was reported to Turan by his lawyer Elmar Suleymanov.
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