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  • Baku Refuses Entry To Human Rights Watch Official

    BAKU REFUSES ENTRY TO HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH OFFICIAL

    Tuesday, March 31st, 2015
    http://asbarez.com/133543/baku-refuses-entry-to-human-rights-watch-official/

    Human Rights Watch researcher Giorgi Gogia

    Human Rights Watch Researcher Planned to Monitor Trials BERLIN (Human
    Rights Watch) - Azerbaijani authorities on March 30, 2015, refused to
    allow a Human Rights Watch researcher to enter the country. The senior
    South Caucasus researcher, Giorgi Gogia, was planning to attend the
    trials of two Azerbaijani human rights defenders who were arrested
    on bogus charges and have been behind bars awaiting trial.

    When Gogia arrived at Heydar Aliyev International Airport,
    authorities refused to allow him into the country, but would not
    provide an explanation. Immigration officials took his passport,
    and required him to remain in the passport hall. Thirty-one hours
    later they handed his passport to the flight crew aboard the plane
    Gogia took back to Tbilisi. No explanation was provided.

    "Barring Giorgi Gogia from attending the trial hearings shows just
    how far Azerbaijan's authorities have taken their crackdown on human
    rights," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at
    Human Rights Watch. "They've ruthlessly silenced many critical voices
    inside the country, and now they don't want to let anyone in to bear
    witness to what they are doing."

    It is the first time that Azerbaijani authorities have denied Human
    Rights Watch staff members entry to the country.

    For years the Azerbaijani government has had a poor human rights
    record, but in the past year a new crackdown has led to the arrest
    of the country's human rights leaders and the forced shuttering of
    many independent groups.

    Gogia had planned to attend hearings for Rasul Jafarov and Intigam
    Aliyev, both arrested in August, who are being tried in separate
    cases. Aliyev, one of Azerbaijan's most respected human rights
    lawyers, is on trial on charges of tax evasion, abuse of power,
    illegal business activities, and embezzlement. Jafarov, who is being
    tried on similar charges, had planned a local "Sports for Rights"
    campaign, to draw attention to the human rights situation in the
    lead-up to the European Games, which Baku will host from June 12 to 28.

    In the last year, the Azerbaijani authorities have used a range of
    bogus criminal charges, including narcotics and weapons possession,
    tax evasion, hooliganism, incitement, and even treason, to arrest
    or imprison at least 35 human rights defenders, political and civil
    activists, journalists, and bloggers. The crackdown has prompted
    dozens of others to flee the country or go into hiding. Many of the
    activists face similar charges, suggesting the punitive and political
    nature of the allegations.

    In recent months Azerbaijani authorities also froze the bank accounts
    of numerous independent civic groups and their leaders, forcing these
    organizations to suspend their work or close. The government has also
    refused to register foreign grants and increased government control
    of foreign funding, making it virtually impossible for groups that
    criticize the government to function. The government has for many
    years harassed independent newspapers and television stations and
    forced many independent media outlets to shut down.

    Human Rights Watch said other governments and international
    organizations should demand an end to the crackdown and the immediate
    and unconditional release of wrongfully imprisoned human rights
    defenders and journalists.

    "It's shocking that less than three months before the opening of the
    European Games, when the government is welcoming the world to Baku,
    it is closing the country to outside scrutiny," Williamson said.



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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