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Mr Alain Berset
Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Palais de l’Europe
Strasbourg
September 18, 2024
Re.: Unprecedented repression in Azerbaijan since January 2024
Your Excellency,
We
would like to warmly welcome you as Secretary General of the Council of
Europe. We look forward to cooperate with you and your office.
As
you start in your position, we believe the human rights crisis in
Azerbaijan should be a high priority of your office. Indeed, since the
Parliamentary Assembly’s decision not to ratify the credentials of the delegation of the Republic of Azerbaijan,
and ahead of the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Baku, the country
has witnessed a notable intensification of repression, occurring in the
aftermath of the presidential election on February 7, 2024 and the
parliamentary election on September 1, 2024, leading to an unprecedented
repression.
As
this is being written, almost no independent civil society actor
remains free in the country. Independent media outlets have seen their
leadership arrested, and the authorities have increased pressure on the
legal profession, as well as on academics and scholars. The repression
is becoming increasingly focused on young individuals.
On April 29, 2024 winner of the 2014 Vaclav Havel Award of the Council of Europe, human rights defender Anar Mammadli,
was arrested (again). He was sentenced to pre-trial detention on
fabricated charges. His detention is emblematic of the increase of
repression in 2024: Anar Mammadli is the leader of the only independent
election monitoring organisation in the country and is a co-founder of
the Climate Justice Initiative, a coalition of independent environmental
and human rights organisations that aimed at joining forces in view of
COP29. His arrest intervened after his organisation’s published its
preliminary findings on the conduct of the presidential elections and
right after the establishment of the Climate Justice Initiative was
announced.
Nevertheless,
Anar Mammadli is not the sole political prisoner in Azerbaijan.
According to Azerbaijani civil society there are more than 300 political
prisoners in the country, of whom the following individuals are
particularly emblematic of the reinforced repression:
- Famil Khalilov is a civic activist with a
considerable following on social media. He is held in conditions that
fail to address his needs as a person with a disability. These concerns
are further compounded considering the “deplorable state of affairs” of
places of detention, as recently highlighted by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture;
- Bahruz Samadov is a researcher and activist specialising in authoritarianism. His written work offers a critical analysis of
Azerbaijan’s
regional and foreign policy. The prosecution of Bahruz Samadov,
associated to targeting other scholars, reveals a new trend, in the will
to silence young academics and writers who through their research
criticise Azerbaijan’s regional and foreign policy;
- Gubad
Ibadoghlu is a distinguished academic and anti-corruption expert who has
taught and conducted research on public finance management and good
governance in Azerbaijan and abroad, most recently at the London School
of Economics. Since 2014, he has been residing in exile. In July 2023,
he returned to Azerbaijan to visit his family but was promptly and
violently arrested. Following a nine-month period of pre-trial
detention, he was placed in house arrest. He remains in this situation
until today, as he awaits trial. If convicted, he could face up to 17
years imprisonment;
- The trade union activist, Afiaddin Mammadov,
has been held in pre-trial detention since August 2023 and is currently
facing criminal charges that could result in a 11-year prison sentence;
- At the same time, Azerbaijani authorities cracked down on independent media, raiding and shutting down the media outlets Abzas Media, Toplum TV, and Kanal 13.
Journalists were arrested during the raids are sentenced to pre-trial
detention on various criminal charges, including the Abzas Media
Director, human rights defender and journalist, Ulvi Hasanli, and woman human rights defender and journalist, Editor-in-Chief Sevinj Abbasova, Head of Institute for Democratic Initiatives, human rights defender Akif Gurbanov, the founder of Toplum TV Alaskar Mammadli, Aziz Orujev, Director of Kanal 13, and journalist Shamo Eminov of Kanal 13, women human rights defenders and journalists Elnara Gasimova, Nargiz Absalamova, and independent multimedia journalist Ali Zeynal;
- Political activists Tofig Yagublu and Ruslan Izzatli, human rights defender and investigative journalist Hafiz Babali and are also among individuals who are remain in detention.
Moreover,
the Mammadli Group of cases continues to be examined by the Committee
of Ministers. The cases in question pertain to prominent human rights
defenders, civil society leaders and a journalist who were all subjected
to arrests and detentions between 2013 and 2016. The European Court of
Human Rights found that these actions constituted a misuse of criminal
law, which was intended to punish and silence them for their human
rights and journalistic activities. As recently observed by a group of
distinguished legal and human rights NGOs,
the Court also “established that these cases reflected a troubling
pattern of arbitrary arrests and detentions of government critics, civil
society activists and human rights defenders through retaliatory
prosecutions and misuse of criminal law in defiance of the rule of law,
and the actions of the State gave rise to a risk of further repetitive
applications (Aliyev v Azerbaijan, § 223).
In a context of repression aiming at the total silencing of
independent civil society, targeting in particular human rights
defenders and lawyers, journalists and media workers, independent
academics and researchers, as well as political activists and
environmental activists, we call upon the Council of Europe through you
to:
- Ahead of and at the occasion of the next Vaclav Havel award
ceremony, call for the release of Anar Mammadli and other human rights
defenders and civil activists, environmental activists, and journalists
whose arrests are politically motivated; use all vehicles in doing so,
including through increased pressure on Azerbaijan’s government to
implement the cases of the Mammadli Group of judgements of the European
Court of Human Rights;
- Call for a total review, in accordance
with Council of Europe Venice Commission findings, of the legislation
designed to target human rights defenders and civil society and
criminalise their activities; make clear that none of such legislation
should be used to further arrest and prosecute such individuals ahead of
PACE’s reconsideration of the credentials of Azerbaijan’s delegation;
- Ensure
that as you participate to COP29, you avoid to contribute to Azerbaijan
self-satisfaction through high-level political endorsement of the COP29
host country’s political leadership; condemn Azerbaijan’s blacklisting
of individuals critical of the government to prevent their presence in
Azerbaijan during COP29, including human rights defenders and lawyers,
journalists and media workers, independent academics and researchers,
political and environmental activists, as well as MPs, including members
of PACE.
We
believe the engagement with Azerbaijan of the new Secretary General of
the Council of Europe will be crucial in creating new venues to bring
Azerbaijan to a level of implementation of obligations under the
European Convention on Human Rights and commitments made by Azerbaijan
upon joining the institution.
Sincerely yours,
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