Committee for Protection of Rights of Victims of Legal Arbitrariness Created in Terter

Baku/22.02.21/Turan: The Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Victims of Legal Arbitrariness in Terter was created, which included:

1.Chairman - Leila Yunus, Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy

2.Co-Chair - Nasir Aliyev, father of innocent convict Emil Aliyev

3.Valida Ahmedova, mother of Elchin Guliyev, who died under torture

4.Kamal Gasimov, father of the innocently convicted Mejid Gasimov

5.Nariman Babayev, father of the innocently convicted Orkhan Babayev

6.Mehman Aliyev, father of the innocently convicted Nasif Aliyev

The committee aims to:

- Release of all those convicted in this fabricated case.

-Rehabilitation and awarding the title of Shehid to all those tortured to death under torture.

- Criminal prosecution of all servicemen guilty of cruel repressions, starting with the country's military prosecutor Khanlar Veliyev.

The Committee plans to regularly hold virtual conferences and coordinate work with international human rights organizations (OMST, AI, HRW, IDREAM), PACE rapporteurs on Azerbaijan, OSCE, EU, US State Department, etc.

The Terter case arose in 2017, when the Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service carried out massive repressions in May-June, the victims of which were soldiers and officers of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces.

Only on May 7, 2017, 47 people were arrested, and by May 17, the number of those arrested increased. Citizens accused of high treason (Article 274 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan) were tortured, as a result of which, already in May 2017. 11 people died.

Full information and names of those killed are here: https://www.ipd-az.org/en/law-enforcement-agencies-of-azerbaijan-sanction-murders/

None of the detainees were provided with a lawyer, there were no trials that ruled to choose a preventive measure on the officially presented charges.

Legal analysis of the trials of Emil Aliyev (Ganja Military Court, chaired by Judge Vugar Mammadov), as well as Natig Guluzade, Nijat Rzayev, Zaur Abdullayev, Veli Khalilov, Emin Aibov, Yalchin Tarverdizade and Orhan Babayev (Terter Military Court), chaired by Ilham Guliyev confirmed the gross violation of Azerbaijani legislation and international law when the above citizens were sentenced to an illegal and unfounded conviction.

Analyzes of the lawsuits here:

https://www.ipd-az.org/ru/another-unbased-accusation-of-change-of-the-homeland/

https://www.ipd-az.org/ru/the-trial-of-7-persons/

In May 2017, the Institute for Peace and Democracy collected information about those killed under torture, and the Internet channel Turan TV conducted an interview with the mother and widow of Colonel Saleh Gafarov, who was killed under torture.

In Baku, human rights defender Oktay Gyulalyev began investigating the crimes of the military prosecutor's office and other security agencies in the Terter case, but on October 29, 2019, he was hit by a car. The doctors did not give him proper help even in a coma. As a result, it has been in a vegetative state for over a year.

At present, the list of the Union "Freedom to Political Prisoners of Azerbaijan" contains the names of 25 convicts in the Terter case. See: https://www.ipd-az.org/ru/political-prisoners-for-17-february-2021/. However, the number of convicts is certainly much higher, the Institute for Peace and Democracy notes. –0—