PACE Co-Rapporteurs call on Azerbaijani authorities to release journalists and opposition activists from prisons

Following their visit to Baku on November 26-28, Pedro Agramunt Font de Mora (Spain) and Joseph Debono Gresh (Malta), Co-Rapporteurs of the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), called on the authorities of the country to release journalists and opposition activists, kept in prisons.

During their three-day visit to Azerbaijan, the Co-Rapporteurs held negotiations with the President of the Republic, the Speaker of the Parliament, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, of Internal Affairs and of Justice, the Chairman of the Supreme Court, the General Prosecutor, the leaders of political parties, represented in the Parliament, and representatives of the civil society.

The Co-Rapporteurs also visited the penal colony No. 9 in Baku, where they met Mamedali Aliev (the former head of the Apsheron District Police Division; in the mid-1990s, he was put on the wanted list on suspicion of committing a number of crimes, including the attempt of coup d'etat, arrested in 2008, and in 2010, he was sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment on charges of intentional homicide, note of the "Caucasian Knot").

Besides, at the medical facility of the Ministry of Justice, the PACE Co-Rapporteurs visited Shakhin Gasanli, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), who was sentenced to 2 year of imprisonment in connection with the protest action, held by the opposition on April 2, 2011, in Baku and who was recognized by the organization "Amnesty International" as a "prisoner of conscience".

According to the press release, posted in the evening of November 29 on the PACE official website, the Co-Rapporteurs have expressed their concern about the recent amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offences of Azerbaijan that increased in many times the penalties for organizing and participating in unsanctioned demonstrations. The Co-Rapporteurs believe that, given the authorities' permanent ban to hold protest actions in the centre of Baku, those amendments can further strengthen the negative impact on the freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.

Besides, the Co-Rapporteurs have expressed their concern about the growing number of human rights defenders, activists, and journalists, arrested in criminal cases.

Agramunt and Gresh have called on the authorities to use "all available legal tools to release those prisoners, whose detention provokes reasonable doubts and concerns about the state of freedom of expression and the independence of the judiciary in Azerbaijan."

The Co-Rapporteurs have also called on the authorities to release "some prisoners on humanitarian grounds."

The Co-Rapporteurs are to present the final version of their report and the draft resolution for consideration by the Monitoring Committee on December 12, 2012. If adopted, both texts will be published and discussed at the 2013 January session of the PACE.

It should be noted that in the morning of November 28, the Co-Rapporteurs cancelled without explanation the press conference, which was originally scheduled for the evening of November 28 in Baku. Journalists from the Office of the Council of Europe in Baku were given a notification that, instead of the press conference, the press release would be presented on the results of the visit.

On November 28, the Co-Rapporteurs met a large group of Azerbaijani human rights defenders.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by Arzu Abdullaeva, a participant of the meeting, the head of the Azerbaijan National Committee of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly, that during the meeting, special attention was paid to the problem of political prisoners and violations of freedom of assembly, expression and the press.

Due to the confidentiality of the meeting, Arzu Abdullaeva refused to quote its participants; however, she spoke of the contents of the conversation.

Despite the coinciding opinions of the human rights defenders on many occasions regarding the recognition of arrested journalists and activists as political prisoners, at the same time, the participants of the meeting claimed the lack of the common position with regard to the Islamists' cases.

However, the human rights defenders have expressed their general opinion of an alarming number of Islamists, currently held in prisons, 250, and, according to Arzu Abdullaeva, their number "exceeds in several times the number of 'prisoners of conscience' and political prisoners." Furthermore, the cases against many Islamists were considered with violation of the law. Besides, they did not commit any overt crimes attempts of coup d'etat or riots. Many of them were arrested for their participation in protest actions, for example, the protest action against the ban on wearing hijabs.

"There was an opinion that such a number of arrested Islamists could be explained by the fact that the authorities were afraid of processes, similar to the Arab revolutions," Arzu Abdullaeva said. The human rights defenders believe that the PACE Rapporteurs are to "look into the legality and fairness of criminal prosecution of Islamists."

The Co-Rapporteurs also met the lawyers, who defended the rights of arrested journalists, civil and political activists.

Lawyer Asabali Mustafaev told that the correspondent that the Co-Rapporteurs were informed that a part of the Azerbaijani society was dissatisfied with "the contemplative policy of the Council of Europe in relation to the human rights situation in the country."