Azerbaijani authorities are not interested in following human rights - Kh. Ismayilova

Baku / 10.12.18 / Turan: The situation with human rights in Azerbaijan is depressing, and the government has no intention to improve it, said the investigative journalist and human rights activist Khadija Ismayilova in an interview with the Azerbaijani service of Voice of America.

"The situation 15 years ago was not better, but at that time there was at least a relatively free press and relatively free TV channels in the country. Now we do not have them; we actually have zero free press and virtually destroyed civil society," Ismayilova said.

Despite the adoption of several human rights action plans in recent years, these documents were declarative by nature. Declaring the development of civil society institutions, the authorities were busy destroying them. Someone was shut down, someone was kicked out, someone was arrested, someone was bribed.

The situation with freedom of speech is also depressing. The last opposition newspaper was closed. Then the authorities took over the Internet, blocking unwanted online resources.

If you express your opinion on Facebook you will lose your freedom. Thus, free-thinking citizens, bloggers, were also confronted with repressions.

Criminal charges are brought against the editor of the opposition website, and even earlier the journalist was kidnapped in Tbilisi and brought here, where he was arrested for a long time.

Called to be on guard of human rights - the courts are under the complete control of the government. The authorities control all the count trials, from the appointment of judges to the distribution of cases between them. The Judicial Legal Council is headed by the Minister of Justice. In courts, the prosecutor makes the main decision, the order comes from the government, Ismayilova said.

Commenting on the appointment of a new PACE rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan, she noted that it is too early to talk about its effectiveness, because there are no results to be seen. "I understand that the government has not invited her into the country yet," Ismayilova noted.

According to her, in the country two human rights structures are engaged in drawing up lists of political prisoners. One list is more extended, the other one is less, because compliance with the criteria of a political prisoner is put more strictly. Ismayilova is a member of the second structure, in the list of which there are 130 political prisoners. In 2014 there were 98 political prisoners, and now there are 130. When in 2013 PACE considered the list of political prisoners, there were 80 of them. The new speaker from Iceland will have to study much more cases.

Speaking about the upcoming tasks in the field of human rights, Ismayilova noted the need to urgently create an independent structure to investigate torture. Independent monitoring mechanisms should be established. Human rights defenders now have no opportunity to help tortured. Lawyers cannot bring their voices to the public due to pressure from the authorities. Thus, lawyer Yalchin Imanov was expelled from the bar association only because he made public the fact of torture in prison.

Opportunities for the activities of civil society institutions should be restored. All this is impossible without a free press, but the authorities have no political will to ensure the protection of human rights in the country. Where human rights are protected, people are able to ask questions, and the government is afraid that a citizen who is aware of their rights may demand answers to questions about corruption, misappropriation of state funds, the reasons for the enrichment of the ruling elite, Ismaylova said. -16D06-