29 Jan 15 | Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan News, mobile, News and features
Azerbaijani journalist Seymur Hezi, who works for Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award-winning newspaper Azadliq, has been sentenced to five years imprisonment for “aggravated hooliganism”, according to Azadlıq Radiosu.
“Index condemns the sentencing of Azerbaijani journalist Seymur Hezi, who was arrested last year on trumped up charges of disorderly conduct. The ‘crime’ for which he is actually being punished is journalism and his attempts to tell the truth about a brutal authoritarian regime that systematically stifles dissent,” Index CEO Jodie Ginsberg said.
Hezi’s sentencing is another sign of the continuing clampdown by Azerbaijan’s authoritarian government on civil society. Earlier this week, investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova‘s pre-trial detention period was extended by a Baku court; other prominent human rights defenders who have been arrested in recent months include: Leyla Yunus, Arif Yunus, Rasul Jafarov, Anar Mammadli and Intigam Aliyev.
Hezi was arrested on August 29 2014 after an altercation in which the journalist said he was protecting himself from a physical assault and harassment, according to his lawyers.
Azadlıq Radiosu reported that Hezi’s lawyers and family are certain the arrest and the sentence are politically motivated and that Hezi is innocent.
His father, Meshqul Heziyev told Azadlıq Radiosu, “the hearing was biased and turned down all of the motions. At the end it simply carried out a politically motivated order”.
“Seymur Hezi’s arrest is a serious blow against our newspaper. He is one of the brightest Azerbaijani analysts and journalists, and a true intellectual,” Rahim Haciyev, acting editor of Azadliq newspaper, told Index at the time of Hezi’s arrest.
Haciyev said he is sure Hezi’s arrest is the result of a planned provocation and the journalist is prosecuted for publishing critical articles on the authorities in the newspaper, as well as in his online TV program “Azerbaijani Hour”, which he scripts and hosts.
In March 2011, Hezi was abducted and tortured by unidentified men. He was warned to keep quiet.
Seymur Hezi is also host of news programme “Azerbaijan Hour” and is a member of the opposition Popular Front Party.
This article was published on 29 January 2015 at indexoncensorship.org
27 Jan 15 | Azerbaijan Statements, Campaigns, mobile
Khadija Ismayilova
On 27 January, a court in Baku extended the pre-trial detention for the investigative journalist. As Azerbaijan continues its crackdown on civil society, Index on Censorship, Platform and 89up have launched a petition calling for the immediate release of journalists and rights activists.
If you live in the UK, the petition will send a letter to your MP asking them to sign Early Day Motion 718, calling on the government of Azerbaijan to release political prisoners in the country and uphold international human rights standards.
Ismayilova was arrested on 5 December 2014, amidst a renewed assault on civil rights in Azerbaijan by authorities. This comes ahead of the inaugural European Games which will be held in the country in June 2015.
In the past seven months, well-known human rights activists and journalists, including Leyla Yunus, Intigam Aliyev, Rasul Jafarov, Anar Mammadli and Seymur Hezi, have been arrested on spurious charges. In addition to politically-motivated arrests, attempts to silence critical voices also included raids on the offices of Radio Azadliq and the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) in Baku.
On 13 Feb, lawyer Fariz Namazly told Contact.az that new charges have been filed against Ismayilova. According to him, Ismayilova is charged under the Article: 179.3.2 (large-scale embezzlement), 192.2.2 (illegal business), 213.1 (tax evasion) and 308.2 (abuse of power.) The charges carry a possible sentence of 12 years.
On 6 March, Ismayilova’s pre-trial detention had been extended an additional two months, until May 24.
Action is needed to reverse the deteriorating environment for free expression in Azerbaijan.
Send a letter to your MP here.
Sign a petition calling on Azerbaijan to release political prisoners here.
21 Jan 15 | Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan Letters, Campaigns, Germany, Statements
Chancellor Angela Merkel
Bundeskanzleramt
Willy-Brandt-Straße 1
10557 Berlin
Madam Chancellor,
As members of the international NGO coalition ‘Sport for Rights’ we are appealing to you to make human rights a central subject in your meeting next Wednesday, 21 January 2015, with president Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan.
In recent years, space for political activity and for civil society and journalism in Azerbaijan has gradually been curtailed, and the last six months in particular have witnessed a severe and unprecedented crackdown, with dozens of civil society activists and journalists serving or awaiting sentencing. The country’s most prominent investigative journalist and a number of leading human rights defenders are in prison, punished for their criticism of government policies. Sham charges such as ‘tax evasion’ are used to justify the criminalization of fundamental rights and freedoms.
The ‘Sport for Rights’ coalition has been established to raise this issue in the context of the forthcoming international sporting events to be hosted by Azerbaijan. Against a backdrop of systematic state-sponsored repression, these events will fail to reflect the spirit in which they were established. The next major sporting event is the Baku European Games, designed and regulated by the European Olympic Committees, scheduled for June 2015. A policy shift by the Azerbaijan towards an open society is urgently required if these Games are to be a success. Human rights defenders and journalists must be released, and we urge you to emphasize this point in your conversations with President Aliyev.
This issue is all the more important given that Azerbaijan is a member of the European community of nations: the country is a member of the Council of Europe (CoE), and part of the EU’s Eastern Partnership Initiative. By ratifying the European Human Rights Convention, Azerbaijan has made a commitment under international law to respect the fundamental freedoms contained therein. CoE officials have repeatedly called attention to Azerbaijan’s failure to uphold these freedoms for its citizens. In his retrospective on 2014, Nils Muiznieks, the CoE Human Rights Commissioner, declared:
One of the most difficult situations I have observed is in Azerbaijan, where the authorities are engaging in a systematic crackdown on human rights defenders, media professionals and civil society partners of the Council of Europe. The number of those in detention there or in exile continues to grow.
President Aliyev may point to token releases that take place from time to time – but please remember that not only are these rare, they are issued only after innocent people have served time in prison, losing months and years of their lives for exercising their basic rights to freedom of expression and association.
Among those unjustly arrested or convicted in 2014 are:
- Anar Mammadli and Bashir Suleymanli, co-founders of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre – Mammadli and Suleymanli were arrested on 16 December 2013 and then sentenced to 5.5 and 3.5 years respectively in May 2014, following outspoken criticism of Azerbaijan’s presidential elections in October 2013. On 29 September 2014, Mammadli was awarded the Václav Havel Award for Human Rights by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
- Leyla Yunus, Director of the Azerbaijan Institute of Peace and Democracy – Yunus was arrested on 30 July2014, and has remained in pre-trial detention since then, despite serious concerns about her health. She was awardedthe 2013 Theodore Hecker Award in Esslingen-am-Neckar “for her self-sacrificing contribution to the protection of human rights and civil freedoms in Azerbaijan.” Her husband Arif Yunus, Head of the Department of Conflict and Migration Institute of Peace and Democracy in Azerbaijan, Ph.D., a historian specializing in conflict studies, was arrested on 6 August 2014.
- Rasul Jafarov, one of the initiators and coordinators of the “Sing for Democracy” (2012) and “Art for Democracy” (2013) campaigns – Jafarov was arrested on 2 August2014 and has remained in detention since. His trial began on 15 January 2015.
- Intigam Aliyev, human rights defender and lawyer – Aliyev was has been in detention since his arrest 8 August 2014. In his capacity as a lawyer he has specialized in defending rights of citizens in the European Court of Human Rights. At the time of his arrest, he was dealing with over 100 cases pending before the Court.
- Khadija Ismayilova, investigative journalist; radio host for Radio Free Europe/Radio LibertyAzerbaijani service; member of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project – Ismayilova was arrested on 5 December 2014.
We ask you to unequivocally remind Azerbaijan of its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. Azerbaijan’s partners should insist that this terrible stainon the country’s human rights record is removed before Baku plays host to the European Games, and that these people be released immediately and unconditionally. Full execution of European Court of Human Rights should also be requested from Azerbaijan in this regard, aiming at amending legislation criminalising human rights defenders in line also with recommendations of the CoE Venice Commission.
We sincerely hope that we can count on your principled leadership on this urgentmatter. We thank you for your attention to the concerns set forth herein.
NGO coalition “Sport for Rights”, including:
- Centre for Civil Liberties (Ukraine)
- Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (Poland)
- Index on Censorship (Great Britain)
- International Partnership for Human Rights (Belgium)
- Netherlands Helsinki Committee (The Netherlands)
- Norwegian Helsinki Committee (Norway)
- People in Need (Czech Republic)
- Platform (Great Britain)
- Youaid Foundation (Poland)
- A group of civil society activists from Azerbaijan who wish to remain anonymous out
of concern for the security of their family members
15 Jan 15 | Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan News, Europe and Central Asia, News and features
Rasul Jafarov in September 2013 (Photo: Melody Patry)
Locked in a double iron cage in a packed courtroom, Azerbaijani activist and regime critic Rasul Jafarov saw his trial open on Thursday.
Detained since 2 August, Jafarov stands accused of crimes including tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship, abuse of office and forgery. The charges are widely believed to be trumped up and in connection to his human rights campaigning works. He could be sentenced to up to 12 years in prison.
Citing a lack of evidence of guilt, Jafarov’s lawyers requested the case be dropped, reported contact.az. They also asked, among other things, that he be allowed to sit with them. Both requests were denied.
The case against Jafarov is part of an ongoing onslaught against critical civil society by Azerbaijani authorities. Campaigners Leyla and Arif Yunus and lawyer Intigam Aliyev were all arrested around the same time as Jafarov, and remain in detention. Investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who has reported on official corruption, was detained on 5 December 2014. Journalist Seymur Hazi, who has worked for Index journalism award winning Azadliq newspaper, is also in detention. There are currently more than 90 reported political prisoners in Azerbaijan.
In a recent development, authorities raided the Azerbaijan bureau of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Jafarov, 30, is chairman of the organisation Human Rights Club, and one of Azerbaijan’s most prominent human rights activists. When capital Baku hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012, he organised the Sing for Democracy campaign to draw attention to rights abuses by President Ilham Aliyev’s government. Aliyev has been in power since 2003, succeeding his father Heydar. In 2013 he was re-elected for a third term, amid claims of voting fraud.
Jafarov was also planning on staging a Sport for Rights campaign when the inaugural European Olympics come to Baku this summer.
In August, he wrote an appeal to the international community from jail, saying that “the past 2-3 years everyone was asking half-joking, half-serious, when I was going to be arrested. It happened, and now I’m looking forward to your support!”
“As we focus on threats to free expression in countries like France in the wake of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, it is vital that we remember the plight of the thousands of individuals worldwide facing daily harassment, threats of violence, and detention, for exercising their rights to free speak freely,” said Index CEO Jodie Ginsberg.
“Azerbaijan is one of the world’s worst countries for free speech. We call on the Azerbaijan government to release Rasul, and others detained for attempting to speak out about the country’s deplorable human rights record. We also urge other governments – who have professed so volubly in recent days their believe in the importance of free speech — to join our call for Rasul’s release.”
“The arrest of Rasul Jafarov, along with other main human rights defenders in Azerbaijan, such as Intigam Aliyev, Leyla Yunus, Anar Mammadli or journalist Khadija Ismayil, shows how the authorities handle critics: there is no space for dialogue in society but enough space for repression and imprisonment,” Florian Irminger, head of advocacy at the Human Rights House Foundation, said.
This article was posted on 15 January 2015 at indexoncensorship.org
