HRW: on the eve of Azerbaijan"s chairmanship in the Council of Europe Azerbaijan has only strengthened policy of repression

Azerbaijan, entering the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, is seriously lagging behind in meeting its obligations to the organization in the field of human rights. This is stated in the new study by Human Rights Watch «Azerbaijan: New Arrests and Convictions of Critics' released due to the start of Azerbaijan’s chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of CE on May 14.

“The Council of Europe is the region’s foremost human rights body, but Azerbaijan’s chairmanship comes at a time when the government is blatantly flouting the organization’s core standards,” said Giorgi Gogia, senior South Caucasus researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Council of Europe’s leadership should make clear to Azerbaijan that it needs to free unjustly imprisoned government critics and undertake far-reaching rights reform.” 

In the past two years, Azerbaijani authorities have brought or threatened unfounded criminal charges against at least 38 political activists, journalists, bloggers, and human rights defenders, most of whom are behind bars. In its September 2013 report “Tightening the Screws:  Azerbaijan’s Crackdown on Civil Society and Dissent,” and in 35 follow-up interviews and other research since then, Human Rights Watch documented the authorities’ use of a range of criminal charges, including drug and weapons possession, incitement to violence, hooliganism, tax evasion, and even treason. 

The circumstances of the criminal investigations and numerous violations in legal proceedings leave little doubt that the charges against these critics are bogus and intended to punish them for their independent activism and criticism of the authorities, Human Rights Watch said.

Among those imprisoned are eight youth political activists sentenced on May 6, 2014, to prison terms ranging from six to eight years; five young men whose trials are ongoing or pending who administered or blogged actively on Facebook pages that sharply criticized the government; Ilgar Mammadov, a prominent political analyst who intended to run for president in 2013 and Tofig Yagublu, deputy chair of the opposition political party Musavat, both of whom in March 2014 were sentenced to seven and five years, respectively, in prison; and Yadigar Sadigov, an adviser to Musavat, sentenced to six years in prison on January 14.

In April Rauf Mirgadirov, an outspoken reporter and commentator, was arrested in Baku’s international airport after he was unlawfully deported from Turkey and is facing treason charges. In December 2013, police arrested Anar Mammadli, chairman of Azerbaijan’s leading independent election monitoring group. He is on trial on trumped-up charges ranging from tax evasion to abuse of office.

Azerbaijani authorities severely limit freedom of assembly and use force to disperse any unsanctioned protests. In a recent example on May 6, 2014, police in Baku violently dispersed a peaceful crowd of about 200 who had gathered at the courthouse in support of the eight youth activists sentenced that day. At least 26 were arrested. Courts fined 12 of them and sentenced 5 to misdemeanor jail terms of 15 to 30 days. Among them was Kemale Benenyarli, whom police struck several times on the head as they questioned her. Benenyarli’s lawyer told Human Rights Watch that Benenyarli has several bruises on her head and has had headaches and vomiting as a result. The Interior Ministry has denied the allegations.

When Azerbaijan became a Council of Europe member in 2001, one of the commitments to which it agreed was the release of all political prisoners and an end to silencing its critics by prosecuting them on politically motivated charges. A January 2013 resolution adopted by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly highlighted the ongoing problem of politically motivated prosecutions, concluding, “The combination of the restrictive implementation of freedoms with unfair trials and the undue influence of the executive results in the systemic detention of people who may be considered prisoners of conscience.”

The resolution urges Baku to review the cases of human rights defenders, activists, and journalists who have been imprisoned on criminal charges and whose trials did not meet international standards. It also urges the authorities to “use all available legal tools to release those prisoners whose detention gives rise to justified doubts and legitimate concerns.”

Securing Azerbaijan’s compliance with its Council of Europe commitments, including the release of those held on politically motivated charges, should be a top priority for the organization and its member states, Human Rights Watch said.

“The result of the government’s arrest campaign is an ever-shrinking space for freedom of expression, assembly, and association in Azerbaijan,” Gogia said. “Instead of addressing this problem in the lead-up to its Council of Europe chairmanship, the government has only stepped up the repression.”  --0--