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HRW: World Report 2013 - Azerbaijan

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  • HRW: World Report 2013 - Azerbaijan

    Human Rights Watch
    World Report 2013

    Azerbaijan

    Azerbaijan hosted the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, casting an
    international spotlight on the government's deteriorating human rights
    record. The atmosphere for political activists and independent and
    pro-opposition journalists grew acutely hostile. Authorities used
    imprisonment as a tool for political retribution and forcibly
    dispersed a number of peaceful demonstrations, indiscriminately
    arresting activists and passersby. Restrictions on freedom of religion
    and the prosecution of unregistered religious groups continued. The
    government intensified its urban renewal campaign in the capital Baku,
    forcibly evicting thousands of families and illegally demolishing
    homes.
    Foreign actors failed to fully realize the potential of their
    relationships with the government to press it to honor its human
    rights obligations.

    Freedom of Media

    In June, the Supreme Court released Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, a social media
    activist who had been serving a two-year prison sentence for allegedly
    avoiding mandatory military service. But Azerbaijani journalists
    continue to face prosecution on bogus charges, harassment,
    intimidation, and physical attacks.Defamation remained criminalized.

    In November 2011, a court sentenced Aydin Janiyev, a Khural newspaper
    correspondent, to three years in prison on hooliganism charges,
    apparently in retaliation for his articles criticizing the
    authorities. Avaz Zeynalli, Khural's editor, in custody since his
    October 2011 arrest, was at this writing on trial on dubious extortion
    charges brought by a member of parliament from the ruling
    party. Khrural, which regularly published allegations of government
    corruption,closed in October 2011, when a court ordered that bailiffs
    seize its property to pay fines imposed in three defamation cases.

    In March 2012, police arrested the executive director and
    editor-in-chief of KhayalTV, a local station, who remained in custody
    at this writing pending trial on charges of organizing social unrest
    and abuse of authority. The charges are linked to a video posted on
    YouTube showing the governor of the northern city of Guba insulting
    local residents in a speech, which many believe was the catalyst for
    the March 1 mass protests in the city.

    In June, a court convicted Anar Bayramli, a journalist for the Iranian
    satellite television station Sahar TV, on trumped-up charges of
    illegal drug possession. In July, the Appeals Court halved his
    two-year prison sentence.

    Hilal Mammadov, the editor-in-chief of Tolishi Sado newspaper who was
    arrested in June on bogus drug possession charges, remained in custody
    pending trial. In June, police also detained Mehman Huseynov, a
    blogger and photographer at the Institute for Reporters' Freedoms and
    Safety, a local media monitoring organization, and released him
    pending investigation on trumped-up charges of hooliganism.

    In August, a court sentenced Faramaz Novruzoglu, a freelance
    journalist, to four-and-a-half years in jail on bogus charges of
    illegal border crossing and inciting mass disorder, stemming from
    spring 2011 Facebook postings, written using a pseudonym, calling for
    riots. Novruzoglu has denied the allegations and claims they are
    retribution for his investigations into business ties of high-level
    officials.

    In April, police and private security personnel beat unconscious Idrak
    Abbasov, a journalist who was filming forced evictions and house
    demolitions. A police investigation was pending at this writing.

    In March, unknown persons attempted to blackmail Khadija Ismailova, a
    Radio Liberty journalist, in retaliation for her investigation into
    the business holdings of the president's family and close associates.

    In November 2011, Rafig Tagi, a journalist with Sanet weekly, was
    stabbed on the street near his apartment, and died of the wounds. No
    one had been charged for the attack at this writing.

    In September 2012, the opposition daily Azadlig faced eviction threats
    from its premises at the state publishing house for failing to pay its
    outstanding debts, while at the same time a court fined the paper
    3o,000 AZN (about US$40,000) in a defamation suit brought by the head
    of Baku metro system.

    Freedom of Assembly

    The government limited freedom of assembly by breaking up peaceful
    protests, in some cases violently, and arresting protesters. In March,
    at the first sanctioned opposition protest since 2006, police detained
    two popular musicians as they played at the peaceful gathering. Police
    beat and denied them access to their lawyer. They were released after
    five and ten days of detention.

    In April, police detained 20 activists distributing flyers encouraging
    people to attend an opposition rally. Courts sentenced 7 of the
    activists to 10 to 15 days of detention, and fined or released others.

    In the days before and during May's Eurovision Song Contest, police
    broke up several protests in Baku's center. Police rounded up dozens
    of peaceful demonstrators, forcing them onto buses, and beating some
    as they did so. The demonstrators were released several hours later.

    In October, police rounded up dozens of protesters in an unsanctioned
    rally in central Baku, roughed them up and forced them into
    buses. Courts imprisoned 13 on misdemeanor charges for up to 10 days,
    and fined several others.

    In November, the parliament increased sanctions for participating and
    organizing unauthorized protests, establishing fines of up to 1,000
    AZN ($ 1,274) for participation, and 3,000 ($ 3,822) for organization.

    Political Prisoners

    Imprisonment on politically motivated charges is a continuing
    problem. A June 2012 report by a committee of the Parliamentary
    Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) described the cases of 89
    political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Just before the report's
    publication, nine were released under a presidential pardon. The PACE
    report documents the cases of journalists, human rights defenders, and
    activists who remain in detention in Azerbaijan on a range of
    trumped-up charges in retaliation for their work.

    Ill-Treatment and Deaths in Custody

    Torture and ill-treatment continue with impunity, and two men died in
    police custody in 2012. In the first eight months of 2012, the
    Azerbaijan Committee Against Torture, an independent prison monitoring
    group, received 136 complaints alleging ill-treatment in custody.

    Forced Evictions and Illegal Demolitions

    Since 2008, the authorities in Azerbaijan have been implementing a
    program of urban renewal in Baku, involving illegal expropriation of
    hundreds of properties-primarily apartments and homes in middle class
    neighborhoods-to make way for parks, roads, and luxury residential
    buildings. Most evictees have not received fair compensation based on
    market values of their properties. In 2012, hundreds of homeowners
    were affected as the authorities accelerated construction for the
    Eurovision Song Contest.

    Freedom of Religion

    The government continued to tighten restrictions on freedom of
    religion. In December 2011, the president signed legislative
    amendments criminalizing the illegal production, distribution, and
    import of religious literature not approved by the state; they were
    previously administrative offenses. A new criminal code article
    punishes the creation of a group that undermines social order under
    the guise of carrying out religious work.

    According to Forum 18, an independent international religious freedom
    monitoring group, police raided several private homes on
    religion-related grounds.

    Human Rights Defenders

    Police arrested two human rights defenders associated with Kur Civil
    Union in retaliation for protecting flood victims in southern
    Azerbaijan. In April 2012, police arrested Ogtay Gulaliyev, the
    organization's coordinator, and charged him with hooliganism. In June,
    police released him, pending investigation and arrested Ilham
    Amiraslanov, another Kur activist. In September, a court sentenced
    Amiraslanov to two years imprisonment on trumped-up weapons possession
    charges. No investigation was made into Gulaliyev's claim of
    ill-treatment in custody, and after a preliminary inquiry the
    prosecutor's office refused to investigate an ill-treatment complaint
    by Amiraslanov.

    In April, a court sentenced Taleh Khasmammadov, a blogger and human
    rights defender from Goychay, to a four-year prison term on charges of
    hooliganism and physically assaulting a public official. Khasmammadov
    investigated allegations of abuse and corruption by law enforcement
    officials. Another human rights defender from Goychay region, Vidadi
    Isganderov, remained in jail after being convicted in August 2011 on
    false charges of interfering with parliamentary elections.

    Azerbaijan Human Rights House, a member of the International Human
    Rights House Network, remained closed following the Ministry of
    Justice suspending its registration in March 2011.

    Key International Actors

    While expressing concern about Azerbaijan's worsening human rights
    record, the European Union, United States, and other international and
    regional institutions did not impose policy consequences or make their
    engagement with Azerbaijan conditional on concrete improvements.

    A great number of foreign governments and international organizations
    condemned President Ilham Aliyev's decision to pardon Ramil Safarov, a
    military officer, whom Hungary extradited to Azerbaijan so that he
    could serve out his life imprisonment term there. In 2004, a Hungarian
    court convicted Safarov for murdering an Armenian colleague at a
    NATO-sponsored training in Budapest. Safarov confessed to the crime,
    which he justified by citing his victim's ethnicity.

    The EU, Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE),
    and the US Embassy in Baku all condemned the assault on journalist
    Idrak Abbasov, and called on the government to launch a prompt and
    thorough investigation, to no avail.

    In its May European Neighborhood Policy progress report, the EU
    highlighted Azerbaijan's failure to meet its commitments regarding
    electoral processes, human rights protections, and judicial
    independence. It also, for the first time, addressed concrete
    recommendations to the authorities.

    The European Broadcasting Union, which oversaw the Eurovision Song
    Contest, made a public commitment to promote freedom of expression in
    Azerbaijan, but declined to take a strong public stand on the
    Azerbaijani government's record. It also refused to urge the
    government to properly compensate homeowners whose apartments were
    demolished in connection with the construction of Eurovision-related
    infrastructure.

    While in Baku in June, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with
    Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, and urged the authorities to release others
    imprisoned on politically motivated charges.

    In a landmark vote on June 26, the Legal Affairs and Human Rights
    Committee of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly adopted a
    report on political prisoners in Azerbaijan. The government had
    refused to cooperate with the committee's rapporteur and denied him
    access to Azerbaijan.

    In its March 2012 concluding observations, the UN Committee on the
    Rights of the Child (CRC) criticized Azerbaijan, for, inter alia,the
    lack of improvement in the juvenile justice system, and the lack of
    alternatives to institutionalization for children without families.

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