In a joint letter, human rights organisations, including FIDH and OMCT within the framework of the Observatory, call the members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to uphold the suspension of Azerbaijan’s credentials for 2025, as escalating repression of civil society in the country violates the principles of the Council of Europe (CoE).
To: Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe (PACE)
Subject: Urgent
Call to confirm the suspension of Azerbaijan’s PACE Credentials and
to Set Clear Benchmarks for their Restoration
Dear Members of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
We, the undersigned
organisations, once again
urge the Parliamentary Assembly to confirm the suspension of
Azerbaijan’s credentials at the January 2025 session and develop
clear and measurable benchmarks for their restoration. Azerbaijan’s
escalating
repression of civil society, independent media, and political dissent
continues to violate the principles and values of the Council of
Europe (CoE).
Azerbaijan
shows a persistent lack of cooperation with international mechanisms
and fails to address systemic human rights abuses. As PACE recognized
in autumn 2024, the human rights situation is
deteriorating and repression has
intensified. In retaliation for their criticism of
Azerbaijan’s human rights record, the authorities banned
a group of PACE members from entering the country. In July, the CoE’s
Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (CPT) took the “exceptional decision” to
make a public
statement concerning Azerbaijan, citing the
government's “outright refusal” to cooperate with the Committee
and severe and systemic issues related to the treatment of people in
police custody. Azerbaijan has one of the worst
records among CoE member states on implementation of
European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments: The Mammadli
group
of cases and
Ramazanova
group
of cases, representing a pattern of government assault
on civic space and human rights defenders, remain essentially
unimplemented to this day.
Since November 2023 and
ahead of and after COP29 in November 2024, the Azerbaijani
authorities have intensified their crackdown on dissent, targeting
civil society, journalists, and activists with politically motivated
arrests on fabricated charges. Many of those arrested complain about
ill-treatment in custody.
Key cases include:
-
Afiaddin Mammadov, head of the Workers' Table Trade Union,
was sentenced
to 8 years in prison in January 2025 on bogus hooliganism charges.
He has been in detention
since September 2023.
- Bakhtiyar
Hajiyev, a prominent activist, was sentenced
to 10 years’ imprisonment in January 2025 on bogus charges of
hooliganism, illegal entrepreneurship, and smuggling charges. PACE
rapporteurs had repeatedly
called
on Azerbaijani authorities to
release him immediately.
- Rail
Abbasov, an activist,
was
sentenced
to 6 years and 6 months in prison on bogus fraud charges in January
2025.
- Ilhamiz
Guliyev, a police whistleblower, was sentenced
to three years’ imprisonment on fabricated drugs acquisition
charges in December 2024.
- Azar Gasimli, a
prominent opposition
figure and director of the Institute of Political
Management, was arrested in December 2024 and put on four months of
pre-trial detention on bogus extortion charges.
- Rufat Safarov,
a human rights defender, was
arrested in December 2024 on fabricated charges of
fraud and hooliganism. PACE rapporteurs were
dismayed by his arrest.
- Over a dozen
journalists and media workers from independent media outlets,
including Toplum TV, RFERL/Azadlig radio and Abzas Media,
continue to face up to twelve years imprisonment on retaliatory
charges of foreign currency smuggling. In addition, the authorities
arrested
six (6) Meydan TV journalists in December 2024 on similar
charges. In total, since
November 2023, authorities have detained at least 20
independent
journalists and media
workers and remanded them to pretrial detention on
various bogus criminal charges. Among those detained are editor Aziz
Orujov, investigative journalist Hafiz Babali and media
expert Alasgar Mammadli, who have serious health problems, as
well as media director Ulvi Hasanli, who has received threats
after he blew the whistle on theuse of torture and ill-treatment in
detention. Seven (7) of the detainees are female
journalists with Abzas Media and Meydan TV. Lawyers
face delays accessing detainees, highlighting systemic barriers to
legal representation.
- Nazim
Baydamirli, a public activist and
former lawmaker, was sentenced
to 8 years in prison in September 2024 on bogus charges of
extortion. Police arrested him shortly after he publicly supported
the protests of villagers against environmental pollution and
denounced the police
violence in July 2023.
- Academics Igbal
Abilov and Bahruz
Samadov were arrested on false charges, including
“high treason”, in July and August 2024. Their arrests were an
apparent retaliation for their academic work and activism. If
convicted, they could face prison sentences of up to 20 years.
- Anar Mammadli,
Václav Havel Human Rights Prize laureate, remains in pretrial
detention with deteriorating
health and a lack of adequate medical care. He
was arrested in April 2024 on bogus currency
smuggling charges shortly after he spearheaded climate justice
advocacy ahead of COP29. During COP29, Baku courts extended the
pre-trial detentions of Mammadli, journalist Imran
Aliyev, former diplomat Emin
Ibrahimov, and young scholar
Igbal Abilov. All are facing various bogus criminal
charges in retaliation for their activism.
- Gubad
Ibadoghlu, a renowned academic and anti-corruption activist,
endured
nine months of pretrial detention, during which his
health worsened due to inadequate care and ill-treatment. In April
2024, the authorities released Ibadoghlu under his own recognizance,
but he is still facing up to 17 years’ imprisonment if convicted.
- Akif Gurbanov,
Václav Havel Human Rights Prize nominee and co-founder of the
political movement III Republic Platform, was arrested
in March 2024 on fabricated smuggling charges in connection with the
criminal case against Toplum TV and Institute of Democratic
Initiatives (IDI), which he chaired.
- Tofig Yagublu,
an opposition activist who is currently on trial for bogus fraud
and forgery charges, is experiencing severe health
issues in detention with his family fearing for his life.
These cases are but a
few examples of the scores of human rights defenders, lawyers,
journalists, opposition politicians, and activists who have been
unjustly arrested and need urgent attention. Others have faced travel
bans and intimidation. The crackdown, together with
the highly restrictive legal environment for the operations of
independent civil society organisations and media, threatens to
eradicate all forms of dissent and legitimate human rights work in
the country, further underscoring the need for a decisive
international response.
Recommendations for
PACE
PACE needs to act
decisively to uphold Council of Europe values and protect civil
society in Azerbaijan. In light of ongoing human rights violations,
we call upon PACE to:
-
Confirm the suspension of Azerbaijan’s PACE
credentials and develop and enforce clear criteria for their
restoration, including:
- Immediate
and unconditional release of arbitrarily detained civic activists,
journalists, and human rights defenders, including vacating any
convictions against them and fully restoring their civil and
political rights.
- Full
implementation of ECtHR judgments on politically motivated
imprisonment.
- Resumption
of cooperation with PACE rapporteurs and the CPT, including access
to detention facilities.
- Amendments
to restrictive NGO legislation, enabling independent civil society
operations.
- Addressing
systemic restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and
assembly and removing arbitrary travel
bans and restrictions on freedom of movement.
- Underline
the need for a comprehensive response to the increased levels of
repression in Azerbaijan by the Council of Europe as a whole, in a
unified and coordinated manner with PACE’s decision on the
credentials as one component.
- In
view of Azerbaijan’s persistent non-implementation of ECtHR
judgements, call on the Secretary General of the CoE to launch an
Article 52 inquiry into Azerbaijan’s systemic violations of the
European Convention on Human Rights.
- Ensure
PACE oversight of the renewal of the CoE’s Action Plan with
Azerbaijan, making cooperation,
including funding, contingent on
measurable human rights improvements in line with the criteria
outlined above, and require that any cooperation includes
independent civil society and human rights defenders.
Sincerely,
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