Azerbaijan, which hosts the United Nations local weather convention, has jailed activists and journalists merely due to their work and their opposition to the authorities, the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner stated in a letter revealed on Monday .
Michael O’Flaherty, the pan-European physique’s prime human rights official, in a letter to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev urged the fast launch of all human rights defenders, journalists and civil society activists.
Azerbaijan’s capital Baku hosts the UN local weather change convention COP 29 regardless of human rights considerations underneath the federal government of Aliyev, who took cost after the demise of his father Heydar in 2003.
O’Flaherty stated activists Akif Gurbanov and Alasgar Mammadli, arrested in March, and Imran Aliyev and Anar Mammadli, arrested in April, have been charged with overseas foreign money smuggling, tax evasion and forgery of paperwork.
Since 2023, greater than a dozen workers and journalists from three media retailers – Abzas Media, Kanal 13 and Toplum TV – have been arrested on comparable costs, he added.
Dated November 4, the letter has solely now been made public.
“I’m involved by experiences that legal proceedings… have been initiated in reference to the conduct of their reliable actions,” he stated within the letter.
He added: “I name on the related authorities of Azerbaijan to instantly launch all human rights defenders, journalists and civil society activists who’re imprisoned for his or her reliable work or for expressing dissenting or crucial opinions.”
It additionally expressed concern about experiences of “ill-treatment and torture” of activists whereas in police custody, in addition to restrictions on the best of entry to a lawyer of their selection.
In its response to O’Flaherty’s letter, additionally revealed by the Council of Europe, Azerbaijan stated it “rejects all allegations… with none dependable proof” that it isn’t complying with its worldwide obligations.
The activists cited by the commissioner “are accused of smuggling giant sums of cash in overseas foreign money” and have been the topic of legal proceedings.
Azerbaijan is without doubt one of the 46 members of the Council of Europe.
The nation has beforehand been convicted by the European Court of Human Rights, which is a part of it, for violating the European Convention on Human Rights which the Court upholds.
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