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An Alarming Situation in Azerbaijan
Published on Thursday, 07 August 2014 08:35Category: Articles and
CommentaryWritten by Dominika Bychawska-Siniarska
The situation of human rights defenders in Azerbaijan is increasingly
alarming. Not only unfavourable amendments have been introduced to
Azerbaijani law, but the authorities have also frozen bank accounts of
a number of opposition activists. Some of them have been recently
arrested under bogus charges.
At the end of May 2014, the Parliament of Azerbaijan, Milli Majlis,
introduced amendments to the law on citizenship. New reasons for
forfeiting the citizenship of the Republic of Azerbaijan have been
incorporated in the law. The deprivation of citizenship may occur if:
"a citizen of the Azerbaijan Republic voluntarily obtains citizenship
of another country; a citizen of the Azerbaijan Republic voluntarily
serves in state bodies and municipalities, or armed forces and/or
another armed units of a foreign country; a citizen of the Azerbaijan
Republic behaves damaging to state security; while acquiring the
citizenship of the Azerbaijan Republic, a person has deliberately
falsified the data necessary to acquire citizenship, or submitted a
falsified document". The possibility of withdrawing Azerbaijani
citizenship in case of behaviour damaging the state security is
particularly worrying, as the notion of "state security" is very broad
and can easily imply the authorities' arbitrariness. The consequences
of stripping citizenship are severe; such person is left without
documents, social security, housing and the ability to work in the
country.
For many years Azerbaijani authorities have been denying registration
of non-governmental organisations. Most of them operate on an informal
basis. It is worth to note that 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.
A new practice targeting NGOs was introduced in April 2014. The
Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for foreign grant
registration, began denying the registration of grants. Without a
document of grant registration, organisation representatives are not
allowed to withdraw money from banks in order to finance their
activity. In the last couple of weeks, private bank accounts of
several human rights activists have been frozen including Mirvari
Gahramanli, Rasula Jafarova, Zohraba Ismayil and Elchin Abdullayev.
Officially, the freezing of funds is an element of the governmental
fight against money laundering.
Last week the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, annulled the
Ministry of Justice regulations which enabled the denial of grant
registration. Until November 1st 2014, the Ministry of Justice of
Azerbaijan will need to establish new rules of grant registrations. In
the last couple of months several activists and journalists were
arrested and some already handed heavy punishments, including a prison
sentence. On March 31st 2014, Hasan Huseynli, the President of the
"Intelligent Citizen" Enlightenment Center Public Union located in
Ganja was arrested under fabricated charges of hooliganism.
On April 28th 2014, Leyla Yunus (head of the Institute for Peace and
Democracy) and her husband, a well-known historian, Arif Yunus, were
prevented from leaving the country. Leyla Yunus is one of the most
well-recognised Azerbaijani human rights defenders. She devotes her
work to the peace building process between Armenia and Azerbaijan. On
July 30th 2014, Leyla Yunus was arrested. She now faces charges of
treason, fraud, tax evasion and illegal business activities. Her
husband was detained on August 5th, facing similar charges.
On July 30th 2014, Rasul Jafarov was banned from leaving the country.
He is a leader of the Legal Protection and Awareness Society, a
partner organization of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and
the initiator of the 2012 Eurovision song contest campaign "Sing for
Democracy". Two days later he was arrested on charges of abuse of
power, tax evasion and illegal business activities.
It is vital to point out that other human rights defenders have been
sentenced recently to heavy penalties due to their non-registered
activities. On May 26th 2014, the Baku Court of Grave Crimes sentenced
Anar Mammadli, chairman of the Election Monitoring and Democracy
Studies Centre to 5.5 years in prison. Bashir Suleymanli who is a
deputy-chairman of the organisation was in the courtroom and sentenced
to 3.5 years. The head of the Public Association for International
Cooperation of Volunteers Elnur Mammadov was given the same term with
two years on probation. They were found guilty for appropriation,
illegal entrepreneurship by an organised group, tax evasion, abuse of
official authority with grave consequences and service forgery.
With his latest repressions, Aliyev took advantage of the fact that
the world's eyes are focused on Ukraine, Russia and Vladimir Putin, as
well as the situation in Gaza. By arresting activists and forbidding
them to leave the country, he is trying to silence people who were
informing the European public opinion about political prisoners, human
rights violations, massive corruption and other hidden agendas of the
presidential family. The insolence and impunity of Azerbaijani
authorities is even greater, taking into account that the country is
now holding the presidency of the Council of Europe, an organisation
referring to democratic values, human rights and the rule of law.
Aliyev's regime is investing unlimited oil and gas money in order to
promote the country and build a positive international image.
Repressions towards activists are an element of this strategy. They
will not be able to disturb parliamentary elections scheduled for next
year, as well as a big presidential show-off, the first European
Olympics which are going to be organised in Baku in 2015.
Unfortunately, almost a week after the arrest of Leyla Yunus, we do
not hear strong voices of concerns from international organisations
and western countries. Will the economic interests, one more time,
prevail over ideas of freedom, pluralism, tolerance, rule of law and
human rights? Time will tell. This time, however, the consequences may
be irreversible, as there are less and less courageous people in
Azerbaijan willing to fight for western values.
Dominika Bychawska-Siniarska is a lawyer at the Helsinki Foundation
for Human Rights. She coordinates several projects devoted to Eastern
Partnership countries with a particular focus on Azerbaijan.
http://www.neweasterneurope.eu/articles-and-commentary/1288-an-alarming-situation-in-azerbaijan
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Published on Thursday, 07 August 2014 08:35Category: Articles and
CommentaryWritten by Dominika Bychawska-Siniarska
The situation of human rights defenders in Azerbaijan is increasingly
alarming. Not only unfavourable amendments have been introduced to
Azerbaijani law, but the authorities have also frozen bank accounts of
a number of opposition activists. Some of them have been recently
arrested under bogus charges.
At the end of May 2014, the Parliament of Azerbaijan, Milli Majlis,
introduced amendments to the law on citizenship. New reasons for
forfeiting the citizenship of the Republic of Azerbaijan have been
incorporated in the law. The deprivation of citizenship may occur if:
"a citizen of the Azerbaijan Republic voluntarily obtains citizenship
of another country; a citizen of the Azerbaijan Republic voluntarily
serves in state bodies and municipalities, or armed forces and/or
another armed units of a foreign country; a citizen of the Azerbaijan
Republic behaves damaging to state security; while acquiring the
citizenship of the Azerbaijan Republic, a person has deliberately
falsified the data necessary to acquire citizenship, or submitted a
falsified document". The possibility of withdrawing Azerbaijani
citizenship in case of behaviour damaging the state security is
particularly worrying, as the notion of "state security" is very broad
and can easily imply the authorities' arbitrariness. The consequences
of stripping citizenship are severe; such person is left without
documents, social security, housing and the ability to work in the
country.
For many years Azerbaijani authorities have been denying registration
of non-governmental organisations. Most of them operate on an informal
basis. It is worth to note that 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.
A new practice targeting NGOs was introduced in April 2014. The
Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for foreign grant
registration, began denying the registration of grants. Without a
document of grant registration, organisation representatives are not
allowed to withdraw money from banks in order to finance their
activity. In the last couple of weeks, private bank accounts of
several human rights activists have been frozen including Mirvari
Gahramanli, Rasula Jafarova, Zohraba Ismayil and Elchin Abdullayev.
Officially, the freezing of funds is an element of the governmental
fight against money laundering.
Last week the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, annulled the
Ministry of Justice regulations which enabled the denial of grant
registration. Until November 1st 2014, the Ministry of Justice of
Azerbaijan will need to establish new rules of grant registrations. In
the last couple of months several activists and journalists were
arrested and some already handed heavy punishments, including a prison
sentence. On March 31st 2014, Hasan Huseynli, the President of the
"Intelligent Citizen" Enlightenment Center Public Union located in
Ganja was arrested under fabricated charges of hooliganism.
On April 28th 2014, Leyla Yunus (head of the Institute for Peace and
Democracy) and her husband, a well-known historian, Arif Yunus, were
prevented from leaving the country. Leyla Yunus is one of the most
well-recognised Azerbaijani human rights defenders. She devotes her
work to the peace building process between Armenia and Azerbaijan. On
July 30th 2014, Leyla Yunus was arrested. She now faces charges of
treason, fraud, tax evasion and illegal business activities. Her
husband was detained on August 5th, facing similar charges.
On July 30th 2014, Rasul Jafarov was banned from leaving the country.
He is a leader of the Legal Protection and Awareness Society, a
partner organization of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and
the initiator of the 2012 Eurovision song contest campaign "Sing for
Democracy". Two days later he was arrested on charges of abuse of
power, tax evasion and illegal business activities.
It is vital to point out that other human rights defenders have been
sentenced recently to heavy penalties due to their non-registered
activities. On May 26th 2014, the Baku Court of Grave Crimes sentenced
Anar Mammadli, chairman of the Election Monitoring and Democracy
Studies Centre to 5.5 years in prison. Bashir Suleymanli who is a
deputy-chairman of the organisation was in the courtroom and sentenced
to 3.5 years. The head of the Public Association for International
Cooperation of Volunteers Elnur Mammadov was given the same term with
two years on probation. They were found guilty for appropriation,
illegal entrepreneurship by an organised group, tax evasion, abuse of
official authority with grave consequences and service forgery.
With his latest repressions, Aliyev took advantage of the fact that
the world's eyes are focused on Ukraine, Russia and Vladimir Putin, as
well as the situation in Gaza. By arresting activists and forbidding
them to leave the country, he is trying to silence people who were
informing the European public opinion about political prisoners, human
rights violations, massive corruption and other hidden agendas of the
presidential family. The insolence and impunity of Azerbaijani
authorities is even greater, taking into account that the country is
now holding the presidency of the Council of Europe, an organisation
referring to democratic values, human rights and the rule of law.
Aliyev's regime is investing unlimited oil and gas money in order to
promote the country and build a positive international image.
Repressions towards activists are an element of this strategy. They
will not be able to disturb parliamentary elections scheduled for next
year, as well as a big presidential show-off, the first European
Olympics which are going to be organised in Baku in 2015.
Unfortunately, almost a week after the arrest of Leyla Yunus, we do
not hear strong voices of concerns from international organisations
and western countries. Will the economic interests, one more time,
prevail over ideas of freedom, pluralism, tolerance, rule of law and
human rights? Time will tell. This time, however, the consequences may
be irreversible, as there are less and less courageous people in
Azerbaijan willing to fight for western values.
Dominika Bychawska-Siniarska is a lawyer at the Helsinki Foundation
for Human Rights. She coordinates several projects devoted to Eastern
Partnership countries with a particular focus on Azerbaijan.
http://www.neweasterneurope.eu/articles-and-commentary/1288-an-alarming-situation-in-azerbaijan
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress