Activists and Family Members of Political Prisoners Celebrate International Day of Human Rights

In the past year the situation in human rights in Azerbaijan deteriorated. The government has completely abandoned the observance of international obligations in this area. Intolerance of dissent has become a state policy and the number of political prisoners has reached the highest level over the past 10 years - 160 people. This was announced on Saturday by the head of the Public Alliance "Azerbaijan without political prisoners" Oktay Gyulaliyev at an event to mark the International Human Rights Day.

An eloquent indicator of attitude of the authorities to the human rights activists was the refusal of the International Press Center to provide room for the event. At the same time, the owner of another premise, ready to give a platform to human rights defenders was summoned to the police, and pressured.

Freedom of assembly is limited so that the civil society activists and opposition are no longer provided premises for their events.

Citizens are pursued even for participation in meetings agreed with the authorities. So before and after the September 17 rally against the referendum, 250 people, mostly members of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, were detained. 27 people were subjected to administrative arrest, 5 were fined, and 5 were dismissed from their jobs.

The situation with freedom of expression is deteriorating. PFPA deputy chairman Fuad Gahramanli was arrested for his Facebook status on the Nardaran events.

The youth activists Giyas Ibrahim and Bayram Mammadov, who wrote slogans on the monument to Heydar Aliyev, were sentenced to 10 years in prison on drug charges.

For positions expressed in the social networks on the Internet the police called and interrogated many opposition and public figures and journalists.

The chief financial officer of the newspaper Azadlig Faig Amirov was arrested, and the newspaper issue was suspended.

In recent weeks, three journalists were arrested - Fikret Faramazoglu, Alovsat Sadigov, and Ikram Rahimov.

After the September referendum restrictions on the Constitution and the Criminal Code were introduced to toughen punishment for online insult of honor and dignity of the President.

The Chairman of the Association of Azerbaijani Intelligentsia Eldaniz Guliyev said the repressive policy of the authorities can be countered only by peaceful public resistance.

"Every self-respecting man should fight for the release of political prisoners, for the same fate might befall some of his relatives and friends later. We cannot tolerate and accept injustice," Guliyev said.

A member of the National Council of Democratic Forces Rovshan Ahmadli agreed with him.

In his opinion, it is necessary to put an end to the debate on the number of political prisoners, whether it is 100 or 160. "Each of the 9 million inhabitants of the country is a potential political prisoner," he said. Ahmadli said he was summoned to the police for he had agreed to provide an office for the event.

"I was told that if I support Taleh Bagirzade arrested for a coup, then I play against the state. This is their logic," said Ahmadli.

The head of Political Prisoners Monitoring Center Elshan Hasanov drew attention to the depravity of the judicial system of Azerbaijan.

“The judges have turned the judiciary to business, introducing solutions in favor of those who give more. They earn on ordinary cases, getting the privilege for strict execution of the orders of the authorities on political affairs,” Hasanov said.

In his opinion, it is necessary to organize a public censure against such judges.

Among the most odious judges he named Enver Seyidov, who sentenced the activist Ibrahimov to a prison term longer than the prosecutor asked.

The judge Akbar Gahramanov deprived two women from the Jehovah's Witnesses community to prison, while one of them was disabled. They were released after the case caused an international outcry.

Hasanov called on the women - mothers, sisters, wives of political prisoners to create public committees to work together to fight for the release of innocent prisoners.

The mother of the former investigator Rufat Safarov said her son was arrested because he had criticized the law enforcement system.

The mother of Hasan Selimkhanov, who was arrested along with 29 others on the eve of Eurovision SC in Baku, said he was sentenced to 14 years on charges of terrorism. According to the mother, her son graduated from the Turkish Lyceum and University of Economics, and knows 5 languages.

“They had no weapons and were not engaged in any terrorist activities. It was coined by MNS led by Eldar Mahmudov,” said Selimkhanova.

Even after the crimes of the MNS leadership were revealed and many of them were themselves arrested, their victims are still in prison. This was stated by the mothers of those convicted on the Said Dadashbeyli case in 2007. Dadashbeyli said he was tortured by Akif Chovdarov, who is under arrest now.

The human rights activist Leyla Yunus joined the conference on Skype from the Netherlands. She said that the participants of the international forum are informed about political prisoners in Azerbaijan and they will hold various actions in support of them.  -06D-