{"id":61280,"date":"2014-10-29T08:57:59","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T08:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/?p=61280"},"modified":"2017-03-23T17:18:02","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T17:18:02","slug":"azerbaijan-human-rights-crackdown-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/?p=61280","title":{"rendered":"Azerbaijan crackdown continues with new arrest and activist deprived of lawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Arif<\/a>

Arif and Leyla Yunus (Photo: HRHN)<\/p><\/div>\n

A journalist from Azerbaijani opposition newspaper Azadliq was today sentenced to 25 days of administrative detention.\u00a0Khalid Garayev, who also hosts online show Azerbaijani Hour, was found guilty of hooliganism and insubordination to the police by a court in the capital Baku. He told the court the case against him is “fabricated, and politically motivated” because of his “journalistic activities and active civil position” reports contact.az<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also today, jailed human rights activist Leyla Yunus said she has been denied access to her lawyer<\/a>. Yunus made the claim in a letter sent from the detention centre in Baku where she is being held. This comes a day after her husband Arif Yunus, who was arrested with her in July, had\u00a0his pretrial detention extended<\/a> until 5 March, 2015.\u00a0Azerbaijani authorities also announced yesterday that police will be able to use electric shockers<\/a>, following an amendment to the police law.<\/p>\n

Leyla Yunus’ lawyers have previously reported being\u00a0denied access to her cell<\/a> or an opportunity to see her. She has also reportedly been beaten and denied medical attention.\u00a0The\u00a0lawyers say the\u00a0conditions\u00a0she\u00a0is being exposed to in prison \u201craise a lot of concerns\u201d.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Yunus couple, rights activist\u00a0Rasul Jafarov<\/a>,\u00a0lawyer\u00a0Intigam Aliyev<\/a>\u00a0and journalist\u00a0Seymur Hezi<\/a>\u00a0have been detained since late this summer.<\/p>\n

Last week, the European Union praised<\/a> an announcement from President Ilham Aliyev that 80 prisoners, including at least four activists, would be granted amnesty. This was \u201ca positive first step in reversing the trend of recent months,” said the EU in a statement.<\/p>\n

Previously, the European Parliament has\u00a0called on Azerbaijan<\/a> to release political prisoners, including Arif and Leyla Yunus. The parliament also called on the government to cease its harassment of civil society organisations, opposition politicians and independent journalists.<\/p>\n

On 13 October, thousands protested<\/a> in Baku, calling for\u00a0the resignation of President Ilham Aliyev, the release of political prisoners and an end to human rights abuses in the country. Two days prior, a travel ban<\/a>\u00a0had been placed on journalist Khadija Ismayilova. She currently faces a lawsuit over\u00a0libel and document forgery<\/a>, accusations she denies. As Index has reported<\/a>, government supporters have threatened Ismayilova\u00a0in the past.<\/p>\n

Fellow journalist Arzu Geybulla<\/a>\u00a0was threatened on social media and accused of treason following a recent interviewed with Azerbaijani news site Modern.az. In July, the Index award-winning newspaper Azadliq was\u00a0forced to suspend publication<\/a> due to financial pressure from authorities.<\/p>\n

Nominations are now open for the Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2015. Put forward your free expression heroes here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article was posted on 29 October 2014 and updated on 30 October at indexoncensorship.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Journalist from opposition newspaper Azadliq sentenced to 25 days of administrative detention, as jailed activist says she has been denied access to her lawyer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":319,"featured_media":61295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[7145,8867,581],"tags":[6393,6660,6392,5873,6784],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61280"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87189,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61280\/revisions\/87189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/61295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}