Europe Plus

Rasul Jafarov, a founder of the Human Rights Club (HRC) and a
coordinator of the human rights campaign during 2012 Eurovision song
contest hosted by Azerbaijan, was arrested on 2 August.

The same day, Baku court sentenced him to three months pre-trial detention,
on charges of tax evasion (article 213 of the Criminal Code of the
Republic of Azerbaijan), illegal business (article 192) and “abuse of
authority” (article 308.2). Jafarov had already been subject to travel
ban prior to these charges.

Rasul Jafarov is facing criminal charges for his work as a human rights
defender. He has been deprived of freedom in connection with his
attempts to exercise his right to freedom of expression and association.

Since its establishment in 2010, Azerbaijani authorities have been
preventing Rasul Jafarov from registering his NGO on arbitrary grounds.
The authorities are now using this to instigate a criminal case against
him based on alleged financial irregularities.

His detention follows the arrest of another prominent human rights
defender, Leyla Yunus, on similar charges on 30 July 2014. On 26 May
2014, Anar Mammadli, chairman, and Bashir Suleymanli, executive director
of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre, were sentenced to respectively 5 years and 6 months imprisonment and 3 years and 6 months on the same charges.

Independent human rights and pro-democracy organisations have long
faced harassment and restrictions in Azerbaijan. The refusal to register
NGOs leaves their leaders with no choice but to operate outside the
strict legal framework, which is later used by the authorities as a
pretext for their criminal prosecution. Rasul Jafarov is the fifth
person to be prosecuted on these grounds in the last four months.

Amnesty International considers Rasul Jafarov to be a prisoner of
conscience. There are no fewer than 20 other civil society activist in
Azerbaijan who are POCs.

The health of the arrested human rights activist Leyla Yunus has
deteriorated. Turan was told by the lawyer Javad Javadov, who visited
her on August 4.

As a result of the acute form of diabetes, she had seriously
deteriorated vision and in September and October 2013 she underwent two
operations on her eyes. Prior to this, she suffered 4 more operations.

“In order to maintain normal blood sugar in the body, Leyla Yunus
should always take special drugs and is in need of medical control. Now
in jail she has no opportunity to do it all. Lack of fresh air and the
absence of motion even aggravate her condition.

Diabetes mellitus affects all organs and her fingers are numb,” said Javadov.

The lawyer said that during this week consideration of the appeal for the arrest of Yunus is expected.

Recall that Yunus was arrested on July 30 on charges of treason and several other crimes.

The charges also regard her husband Arif Yunus, who for health reasons was placed under police surveillance.

A known conflict expert at the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD)
Arif Yunus was arrested today when carrying food to his arrested wife
Leyla Yunus in the Baku Detention Center.

According to the lawyer Khalid Bagirov, Yunus was first taken to the 27th
police station in the Yasamal district. Then the lawyer was informed
that Yunus was brought to the Investigation Department for Serious
Crimes of the Prosecutor General’s Office to the inspector Ibrahim
Lemberansky.

The lawyer expressed fears that Arif Yunus will be also arrested.

On August 5 the Nasimi district court ruled decision to arrest for 3
months a conflictologist Arif Yunus. On July 30, he was taken under
police supervision, and his wife, the IMD Director Leyla Yunus, was
arrested. The family is charged with treason and other crimes.

According to the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the
arrest of Yunus is motivated by violation of the requirements of the
criminal procedural law. In particular, Yunus repeatedly, without police
permission, “left the territory of the district, where he lived, and
met with officials being prosecuted, or who may be subjected to
persecution, was engaged in Internet correspondence, spoke in an
interview with the media, which provided one-sided, false information,”
reads the statement of the Prosecutor Office.

contact.az

The EU is very concerned at the latest clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh, calling in a statement on both sides to immediately respect the ceasefire and refrain from the use of force.

“We are very concerned by the latest armed incidents which caused a number of casualties along the Line of Contact and the Armenian-Azerbaijani State border in recent days,” said the statement from the spokesperson of the EU External Action service, issued on 3 August.

“We call on both sides to immediately respect the ceasefire, refrain from the use of force or any threat thereof, and continue efforts towards a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”

The statement recalled that the EU was ready to engage in renewed efforts towards a political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and to further contribute to peace-building efforts, in full complementarity with the OSCE Minsk Group.

The EU has expressed serious concern at the arrest of a leading human rights defender in Azerbaijan, and pointing to “a wider picture of mounting restrictions targeting civil society in Azerbaijan”.

A
statement issued on 2 August by the Spokespersons of the EU High
Representative and of the Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy said: “We
are very concerned that Dr Leyla Yunus, leader of a respected NGO, the
Institute for Peace and Democracy in Azerbaijan, and a prominent human
rights defender, has been arrested, charged with serious crimes
including high treason, and sentenced to pre-trial detention on 30 July
2014.”

“The
arrest of Dr Yunus seems to be part of a wider picture of mounting
restrictions targeting civil society in Azerbaijan. The EU has
repeatedly made its serious concerns known to the Azerbaijan government,
both in public and in private,” the statement added.

It went on to say the EU valued its relationship with Azerbaijan, but warned: “This
relationship cannot achieve its full potential unless Azerbaijan fully
respects its international commitments including those deriving from its
membership of the Council of Europe, where Azerbaijan currently chairs
the Committee of Ministers.”