Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Azerbaijan family of Margaret Thatcher's one-time interpreter plead

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Azerbaijan family of Margaret Thatcher's one-time interpreter plead

    Azerbaijan family of Margaret Thatcher's one-time interpreter plead
    for her release

    Relatives of Leyla Yunus, who once worked as an interpreter for
    Margaret Thatcher, urge BP and British Government to act over her
    arrest and alleged abuse

    Leyla Yunus, right, with Margaret Thatcher during the latter's visit
    to Azerbaijan in September 1992

    By Tom Parfitt, Moscow

    8:00AM BST 05 Oct 2014

    The family of a woman who once acted as a personal interpreter for
    Margaret Thatcher are calling on the oil company BP and the British
    Government to intervene and secure her release from jail in
    Azerbaijan.

    Leyla Yunus, 58, a leading human rights campaigner, was arrested in
    July on what are widely seen as trumped up charges of treason and
    fraud. Her husband, Arif, 59, an academic, was thrown behind bars a
    few days later.

    "Leyla has been beaten and dragged by her hair by a prison guard and
    she is being subjected to constant psychological abuse," Ramis Yunus,
    her brother-in-law, told The Telegraph.

    "I urge BP and the British Government to speak out and pressure the
    government of Azerbaijan into releasing all political prisoners,
    including Leyla and my brother," he added.

    Mr Yunus said he was disappointed that European governments were
    "closing their eyes" to the plight of his relatives. "I'm sure that
    Margaret Thatcher would have condemned the arrest of Leyla and Arif
    Yunus, whom she knew personally, and she would have found both
    political and economic means to pressure the government of Azerbaijan
    to let them go."

    Mrs Yunus and her husband were jailed in revenge for her publishing a
    list of political prisoners, now numbering 98, and organising a peace
    initiative with Azerbaijan's neighbour and traditional foe, Armenia,
    according to their relatives and colleagues.

    She was also targeted for helping families whose homes were destroyed
    to make way for buildings for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in
    Baku, the capital.

    Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan's hardline president, stands accused of
    launching an unprecedented crackdown on dissent that has intensified
    since the beginning of this year, jailing dozens of rights
    campaigners, lawyers and journalists.

    Human Rights Watch describes the charges against Mr and Mrs Yunus as
    "completely bogus, and intended to silence them". The Azerbaijan
    government denies the charges are politically motivated.

    Mrs Yunus is a former deputy defence minister and skilled linguist who
    met Lady Thatcher when she visited Baku in 1992.

    Lady Thatcher, who had resigned as Prime Minister two years earlier,
    travelled to newly-independent Azerbaijan to hand the Azeris two
    cheques worth $30m on behalf of BP that was a down payment on Caspian
    oilfields. That agreement paved the way for the "Contract of the
    Century" signed in 1994, which saw BP take the lead in a consortium
    extracting hydrocarbons from the seabed.

    During Lady Thatcher's visit, Mrs Yunus was given the role of
    escorting her, helping translate and explaining the war that was then
    raging between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh. "They were
    both strong women and they got on well," said her brother-in-law.


    Leyla and Arif Yunus in 2013

    Mrs Yunus, who is now being held in a pretrial detention centre, has
    diabetes, hepatitis and eye problems that her family believe could be
    exacerbated in custody. Her lawyers say she has been subjected to
    verbal and physical abuse by a senior guard and a fellow inmate in her
    cell.

    Arif Yunus, who suffered a stroke earlier this year, is in detention
    at a facility run by the national security ministry, which is
    notorious for torture of inmates.

    Analysts believe Mr Aliyev is using the West's distraction by events
    in Ukraine and the Middle East to liquidate all opposition ahead of
    the inaugural European Games in Baku next year, which will be
    sponsored by BP.

    Ramis Yunus, a former chief of staff of the Azeri government who lives
    in Baltimore in the United States, said BP should confront Mr Aliyev
    and withdraw its sponsorship from the Games. "This event is being used
    by the regime to improve its image and cover up its repression," he
    said.

    Dinara Yunus, 29, the daughter of Leyla and Arif Yunus, fled
    Azerbaijan for Holland in 2009 after her parents received threats that
    she would be harmed.

    Speaking by telephone from Amsterdam, she said: "Are economic
    interests more important than human rights? By telling the government
    of Azerbaijan to do something about political prisoners, BP could
    raise its image and be more ethical.

    "BP should call for the immediate and unconditional release of the
    political prisoners, including my parents. BP is powerful enough to
    set these rules."

    The campaign against dissent in Azerbaijan peaked this summer. In the
    most prominent cases, Rasul Jafarov, a young rights activist, was
    arrested on tax evasion charges on August 2, and Intigam Aliyev, a
    veteran lawyer who had filed complaints about election fraud to the
    European Court of Human Rights, was detained on similar charges a few
    days later.

    Later the same month, Ilgar Nasibov, a journalist in the Nakhichevan
    region, was left unconscious with his face beaten to a bloody pulp,
    after an attack by unknown assailants. He had investigated a
    controversial case involving a death in custody.

    In a statement to The Telegraph, BP said that it had "a strong and
    long-standing commitment to respecting the human rights and dignity of
    all people, wherever we do business".

    However, the company said it believed "the government of Azerbaijan
    has the primary responsibility to protect human rights and we remain
    ready to implement their guidance in this regard".

    It declined to comment on whether it would withdraw sponsorship of the
    European Games.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/azerbaijan/11140678/Azerbaijan-family-of-Margaret-Thatchers-one-time-interpreter-plead-for-her-release.html

Working...
X