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Human Rights Watch Urges Action on Azeri Abuses
http://asbarez.com/122608/human-rights-watch-urges-action-on-azeri-abuses/
Friday, May 2nd, 2014
Azerbaijani human rights advocate Leyla Yunus holds up a photograph of
arrested journalist and human rights defender Hilal Mammadov in Baku.
May 22, 2013. (Photo: RFE/RL)
Says Hollande, Council of Europe Leadership Should Speak Out
BERLIN'Azerbaijani authorities are harassing and engaging in
oppressive tactics against a prominent human rights defender,
international advocacy group Human Rights Watch said in a statement
released on Friday. The organization says the Azerbaijani government
should end the harassment against prominent Azerbaijani human rights
defenders and peace advocates Leyla Yunus and her husband, Arif.
`Azerbaijan's international partners, in particular fellow members of
the Council of Europe, should make clear that continued harassment of
human rights defenders, and the Yunuses in particular, will affect
their relationships with Azerbaijan's government,' Human Rights Watch
(HRW) says.
`Leyla and Arif Yunus are among many people the Azerbaijani
authorities find `inconvenient,'' said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe
and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. `No government should
be allowed to get away with targeting human rights defenders while
it's seeking to boost its international prestige.'
On April 28, Baku airport police prevented the couple from leaving the
country, confiscated their passports, and subjected them to a 24-hour
ordeal that led to Arif Yunus's hospitalization. The prosecutor's
office subsequently designated them as witnesses in a treason
investigation against Azerbaijani journalist and civic activist Rauf
Mirgadirov, who was deported from Turkey on April 19 and then arrested
in Baku.
The authorities should immediately return the Yunuses' passports and
stop the arbitrary interference with their freedom of movement and
right to leave their country, Human Rights Watch said. There is no
provision in Azerbaijani law to bar people who are designated
witnesses in a criminal investigation from leaving the country.
President Francois Hollande of France is scheduled to visit Azerbaijan
on May 11 and 12, and it is expected that Leyla Yunus may meet with
him when he is in Baku. In 2013 the French ambassador for human rights
awarded Yunus France's Legion of Honor award (Ordre National de la
Légion d'honneur) ` the highest French decoration ` for her courage
and promotion of human rights. HRW says Hollande should insist on
seeing the Yunuses while in Baku and make clear that their freedom,
and Mirgadirov's, is of great importance to him, and to
French-Azerbaijani relations.
On May 15, Azerbaijan will take over the rotating chairmanship of the
Council of Europe, Europe's foremost human rights body. Human Rights
Watch is calling on the body's secretary-general, Thorbjorn Jagland,
to express urgent concern about harassment of the Yunuses and the
treatment of Mirgadirov, as well as the wider crackdown on civic
activists and journalists under way for the past year in Azerbaijan,
which has intensified in recent months.
`The harassment against the Yunuses is only the latest example of the
Azerbaijani government's efforts to muzzle critics,' Denber said. `The
Council of Europe's top leadership should step in immediately and say
that this conduct is utterly inappropriate for a government that is
about to take over the organization's chairmanship.'
Leyla Yunus is the director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy,
a human rights group formed in 1995 that has focused on combating
politically motivated prosecutions, corruption, violence against
women, and unlawful house evictions. It has also been involved in
projects aimed at improving people-to-people dialogue between people
in Azerbaijan and Armenia, against the background of the unresolved
conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
In the April 28 incident, airport police at about 11 p.m. stopped the
Yunuses from boarding a plane, searched their belongings, and
confiscated a laptop computer and documents. Yunus told Human Rights
Watch that the National Security Ministry and officials from the
prosecutor general's office questioned the couple at the airport,
refusing to allow their lawyer access to them.
At about 3 a.m., law enforcement agents accompanied the couple to
their apartment and attempted to search it. Because the officials
refused to show Leyla Yunus a search warrant, she refused to allow
them to enter. During the exchange at the apartment, Arif Yunus, who
had been hospitalized the week before with high blood pressure and a
heart condition, fell ill and was rushed to the hospital again. He is
in intensive care.
The next morning, Leyla Yunus was questioned for hours at the
prosecutor general's office, this time in the presence of her lawyer.
At about 4 p.m., she was released without charge. That evening police,
producing a warrant, searched her home and her office, confiscating,
among other things, books by Arif Yunus, a book in Armenian, a
photocopy of Mirgadirov's ID, and computers.
Yunus's lawyer told Human Rights Watch that all of the prosecutor's
questions related to their work on building dialogue with Armenians
and her relationship with Mirgadirov, who is facing charges of spying
for Armenia in connection with trips he made to Armenia, Georgia, and
Turkey in 2008 and 2009.
Mirgadirov had been involved in `second track diplomacy' between
Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. He participated in
meetings organized by nongovernmental organizations in Armenia aimed
at improving people-to-people dialogue between the conflicting sides.
The Institute for Peace and Democracy co-organized some of those
programs.
In an April 29 news article, the press service for the prosecutor
general's office said that the Yunuses were witnesses to a criminal
investigation and alleged that they had previously ignored an attempt
to be served with an interrogation summons and follow-up phone calls
asking them to appear for questioning.
Yunus's lawyer told Human Rights Watch that on April 24 an official
came to the Yunuses' home to deliver a summons to appear for
interrogation in several hours, which Leyla Yunus refused, saying she
had not received adequate notice. Another person close to the case
told Human Rights Watch that this incident had resulted in Arif
Yunus's earlier hospitalization with hypertension.
Azerbaijan has a long history of using bogus charges to imprison its
critics, including on treason charges, Human Rights Watch said.
In August 2011, violating a court injunction, the Baku authorities
demolished without warning a building owned by Leyla Yunus as part of
a government land clearance to make way for a park and business area.
The building housed the Institute for Peace and Democracy and two
other human rights groups. Yunus had repeatedly criticized the
government's redevelopment plans for the area.
`The ordeal the authorities subjected the Yunuses to bears all the
marks of a government getting ready to pounce on two people it has
long had in its crosshairs,' Denber said. `The government needs to
back off and both President Hollande and the Council of Europe need to
make that clear.'
http://asbarez.com/122608/human-rights-watch-urges-action-on-azeri-abuses/
Friday, May 2nd, 2014
Azerbaijani human rights advocate Leyla Yunus holds up a photograph of
arrested journalist and human rights defender Hilal Mammadov in Baku.
May 22, 2013. (Photo: RFE/RL)
Says Hollande, Council of Europe Leadership Should Speak Out
BERLIN'Azerbaijani authorities are harassing and engaging in
oppressive tactics against a prominent human rights defender,
international advocacy group Human Rights Watch said in a statement
released on Friday. The organization says the Azerbaijani government
should end the harassment against prominent Azerbaijani human rights
defenders and peace advocates Leyla Yunus and her husband, Arif.
`Azerbaijan's international partners, in particular fellow members of
the Council of Europe, should make clear that continued harassment of
human rights defenders, and the Yunuses in particular, will affect
their relationships with Azerbaijan's government,' Human Rights Watch
(HRW) says.
`Leyla and Arif Yunus are among many people the Azerbaijani
authorities find `inconvenient,'' said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe
and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. `No government should
be allowed to get away with targeting human rights defenders while
it's seeking to boost its international prestige.'
On April 28, Baku airport police prevented the couple from leaving the
country, confiscated their passports, and subjected them to a 24-hour
ordeal that led to Arif Yunus's hospitalization. The prosecutor's
office subsequently designated them as witnesses in a treason
investigation against Azerbaijani journalist and civic activist Rauf
Mirgadirov, who was deported from Turkey on April 19 and then arrested
in Baku.
The authorities should immediately return the Yunuses' passports and
stop the arbitrary interference with their freedom of movement and
right to leave their country, Human Rights Watch said. There is no
provision in Azerbaijani law to bar people who are designated
witnesses in a criminal investigation from leaving the country.
President Francois Hollande of France is scheduled to visit Azerbaijan
on May 11 and 12, and it is expected that Leyla Yunus may meet with
him when he is in Baku. In 2013 the French ambassador for human rights
awarded Yunus France's Legion of Honor award (Ordre National de la
Légion d'honneur) ` the highest French decoration ` for her courage
and promotion of human rights. HRW says Hollande should insist on
seeing the Yunuses while in Baku and make clear that their freedom,
and Mirgadirov's, is of great importance to him, and to
French-Azerbaijani relations.
On May 15, Azerbaijan will take over the rotating chairmanship of the
Council of Europe, Europe's foremost human rights body. Human Rights
Watch is calling on the body's secretary-general, Thorbjorn Jagland,
to express urgent concern about harassment of the Yunuses and the
treatment of Mirgadirov, as well as the wider crackdown on civic
activists and journalists under way for the past year in Azerbaijan,
which has intensified in recent months.
`The harassment against the Yunuses is only the latest example of the
Azerbaijani government's efforts to muzzle critics,' Denber said. `The
Council of Europe's top leadership should step in immediately and say
that this conduct is utterly inappropriate for a government that is
about to take over the organization's chairmanship.'
Leyla Yunus is the director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy,
a human rights group formed in 1995 that has focused on combating
politically motivated prosecutions, corruption, violence against
women, and unlawful house evictions. It has also been involved in
projects aimed at improving people-to-people dialogue between people
in Azerbaijan and Armenia, against the background of the unresolved
conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
In the April 28 incident, airport police at about 11 p.m. stopped the
Yunuses from boarding a plane, searched their belongings, and
confiscated a laptop computer and documents. Yunus told Human Rights
Watch that the National Security Ministry and officials from the
prosecutor general's office questioned the couple at the airport,
refusing to allow their lawyer access to them.
At about 3 a.m., law enforcement agents accompanied the couple to
their apartment and attempted to search it. Because the officials
refused to show Leyla Yunus a search warrant, she refused to allow
them to enter. During the exchange at the apartment, Arif Yunus, who
had been hospitalized the week before with high blood pressure and a
heart condition, fell ill and was rushed to the hospital again. He is
in intensive care.
The next morning, Leyla Yunus was questioned for hours at the
prosecutor general's office, this time in the presence of her lawyer.
At about 4 p.m., she was released without charge. That evening police,
producing a warrant, searched her home and her office, confiscating,
among other things, books by Arif Yunus, a book in Armenian, a
photocopy of Mirgadirov's ID, and computers.
Yunus's lawyer told Human Rights Watch that all of the prosecutor's
questions related to their work on building dialogue with Armenians
and her relationship with Mirgadirov, who is facing charges of spying
for Armenia in connection with trips he made to Armenia, Georgia, and
Turkey in 2008 and 2009.
Mirgadirov had been involved in `second track diplomacy' between
Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. He participated in
meetings organized by nongovernmental organizations in Armenia aimed
at improving people-to-people dialogue between the conflicting sides.
The Institute for Peace and Democracy co-organized some of those
programs.
In an April 29 news article, the press service for the prosecutor
general's office said that the Yunuses were witnesses to a criminal
investigation and alleged that they had previously ignored an attempt
to be served with an interrogation summons and follow-up phone calls
asking them to appear for questioning.
Yunus's lawyer told Human Rights Watch that on April 24 an official
came to the Yunuses' home to deliver a summons to appear for
interrogation in several hours, which Leyla Yunus refused, saying she
had not received adequate notice. Another person close to the case
told Human Rights Watch that this incident had resulted in Arif
Yunus's earlier hospitalization with hypertension.
Azerbaijan has a long history of using bogus charges to imprison its
critics, including on treason charges, Human Rights Watch said.
In August 2011, violating a court injunction, the Baku authorities
demolished without warning a building owned by Leyla Yunus as part of
a government land clearance to make way for a park and business area.
The building housed the Institute for Peace and Democracy and two
other human rights groups. Yunus had repeatedly criticized the
government's redevelopment plans for the area.
`The ordeal the authorities subjected the Yunuses to bears all the
marks of a government getting ready to pounce on two people it has
long had in its crosshairs,' Denber said. `The government needs to
back off and both President Hollande and the Council of Europe need to
make that clear.'