Political Prisoners Monitoring Center Urges Release of Spouses Yunus out of Azerbaijan

The Political Prisoners Monitoring Center expressed concern with the state of health of the spouses Leyla and Arif Yunus, calling on the authorities to allow them to travel abroad for treatment.

Leyla and Arif Yunus were arrested in July and August 2014, and in 2015 sentenced to 8.5 and 7 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.

After a year of arrest, the Baku Court of Appeal changed the sentence for Arif Yunus and later for Leyla Yunus by "conditional" imprisonment for five years. However, the court denied them permission to leave the country for treatment.

 Arif Yunus suffers from hypertension, while Leyla suffers hepatitis C and severe diabetes. Despite this, they are not allowed to travel abroad for treatment, the head of the Political Prisoners Monitoring Center Elshan Hasanov told Turan.

 "Given the age of Leyla and Arif Yunus and the need to provide them with specialized medical care, we encourage the authorities to allow them to leave the country," Hasanov said.

The Center also condemned the arrests of political refugee families, in particular, the brother-in-law of the head of Meydan TV Emin Milli and a nephew and a cousin of the chief editor of the Azadlig newspaper Ganimat Zahid. The center sees the arrests as "political and unfounded.” -06D-