NCDF condemns criminal prosecution of Gultekin Hajibayli

Baku/19.12.22/Turan: The National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) issued a statement condemning the prosecution of a member of the coordination center of this structure, Gultekin Hajibayli.

She was detained on November 30 at the Baku airport upon her return from Europe and taken to court, where it turned out that a criminal case had been opened against her based on a complaint by a certain Leya Arif under  the Article 147.2 of the Criminal Code (slander in the commission of a grave or especially grave crime).

The reason for the complaint against Hajibeyli was that during a discussion on social networks, she called a private accuser a “separatist”. However, Hajibayli only gave a political assessment of the justification of separatism, and condemned attempts to incite enmity between the peoples living in Azerbaijan.

The NCDF believes that the authorities are using the complaint of Leyla Arif to further persecute Hajibeyli and it is possible that the trial will end with the punishment of Hajibeyli.

Since the beginning of 2022, the authorities have carried out several high-profile arrests on libel charges. Thus, Ali Aliyev, the leader of the Citizens and Development Party, was sentenced to imprisonment three times, Ilham Aslanoglu, a human rights activist, and Abid Gafarov, a YouTube channel presenter, were sentenced to imprisonment three times.

The authorities want to destroy the real opposition and civil society in the country, the NCDF said in a statement. This is confirmed by the adoption of the new reactionary law "On Political Parties", the actual abolition of the right to freedom of assembly and the dispersal of the PFPA protests in September-November, and finally the arrest of one of the most famous public activists, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev.

The National Council demanded that the authorities open the way for real, fundamental reforms in the country, release all political prisoners, put an end to repressions and stop the criminal case against G. Hajibayli.