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ALIYEV IS SHOWING SIGNS OF A FRANTIC DESPOTISM-THE WASHINGTON POST
17:45, 2 March, 2015
YEREVAN, 2 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham
Aliyev, is showing signs of a frantic despotism. Journalists, bloggers,
lawyers, human rights activists and others who speak out for individual
liberty are arbitrarily being swept up in a wave of arrests and
detentions, as "Armenpress" reports, citing The Washington Post.
Mr. Aliyev, suffering a decline in the oil revenue that has propped
up his regime for years, seems to be striking out at anyone who
opposes him.
One of Mr. Aliyev's favorite tools for silencing people is pretrial
detention. Azeri law states that it is to be used only in limited
cases, and Azerbaijan's criminal procedure code put this power in
the hands of the courts, not prosecutors, more than a decade ago. In
practice, though, the courts have become servants of the prosecution.
The European Court for Human Rights noted in a case last year that
Azeri courts have frequently endorsed prosecution requests for
detention automatically.
Leyla Yunus, a prominent human rights activist, has been in pretrial
detention since July 30 on arbitrary and trumped-up charges of treason
and tax evasion. She is suffering from a liver condition and diabetes.
On Feb. 18, an appeals court dismissed her appeal and gave her another
five months in pretrial detention, at the end of which she will
have been behind bars for nearly a year without trial. Her husband,
Arif Yunus, a historian who suffers from cardiovascular disease,
was detained on Aug. 5. His appeal was dismissed Feb. 23, and he,
too, was given another five months in pretrial detention.
Meanwhile, the campaign against critical journalists continues. The
investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who described her
situation in a letter from prison that ran as a recent Post op-ed,
remains behind bars in pretrial detention. A closed-door trial was
held Feb. 23, three days after her letter appeared, and she was
found guilty of criminal libel and fined. The libel charge stemmed
from accusations made in 2014 by a man who claimed she defamed him
on Facebook, which she denied. In the twisted, Orwellian nature of
the Azeri justice system, she was first arrested in December on a
charge of inciting a former colleague to attempt suicide and since has
been slapped with new charges, including embezzlement, tax evasion,
illegal entrepreneurship and abuse of power.
Mr. Aliyev seems particularly uncomfortable with the work of the
Azerbaijani service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, to which Ms.
Ismayilova had contributed. On the same day as her snap trial, a
former chief of the service's Baku bureau was stopped at the airport,
prevented from boarding a plane and told he was under a travel ban at
the request of the prosecutor's office. More than 26 journalists and
staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty have been interrogated by
Azeri authorities since a Dec. 26 raid on the Baku bureau. The news
organization is funded by the United States through the Broadcasting
Board of Governors.
In a recent magazine advertisement, Mr. Aliyev said he wanted to make
Azerbaijan "one of the most developed and competitive countries in
the world." It certainly won't become that if he continues to rule
like a despot.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/letter-from-an-azerbaijani-prison/2015/02/17/2a2d6cb0-b3d3-11e4-886b-c22184f27c35_story.html
http://armenpress.am/eng/news/796105/aliyev-is-showing-signs-of-a-frantic-despotism-the-washington-post.html
From: A. Papazian
17:45, 2 March, 2015
YEREVAN, 2 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham
Aliyev, is showing signs of a frantic despotism. Journalists, bloggers,
lawyers, human rights activists and others who speak out for individual
liberty are arbitrarily being swept up in a wave of arrests and
detentions, as "Armenpress" reports, citing The Washington Post.
Mr. Aliyev, suffering a decline in the oil revenue that has propped
up his regime for years, seems to be striking out at anyone who
opposes him.
One of Mr. Aliyev's favorite tools for silencing people is pretrial
detention. Azeri law states that it is to be used only in limited
cases, and Azerbaijan's criminal procedure code put this power in
the hands of the courts, not prosecutors, more than a decade ago. In
practice, though, the courts have become servants of the prosecution.
The European Court for Human Rights noted in a case last year that
Azeri courts have frequently endorsed prosecution requests for
detention automatically.
Leyla Yunus, a prominent human rights activist, has been in pretrial
detention since July 30 on arbitrary and trumped-up charges of treason
and tax evasion. She is suffering from a liver condition and diabetes.
On Feb. 18, an appeals court dismissed her appeal and gave her another
five months in pretrial detention, at the end of which she will
have been behind bars for nearly a year without trial. Her husband,
Arif Yunus, a historian who suffers from cardiovascular disease,
was detained on Aug. 5. His appeal was dismissed Feb. 23, and he,
too, was given another five months in pretrial detention.
Meanwhile, the campaign against critical journalists continues. The
investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who described her
situation in a letter from prison that ran as a recent Post op-ed,
remains behind bars in pretrial detention. A closed-door trial was
held Feb. 23, three days after her letter appeared, and she was
found guilty of criminal libel and fined. The libel charge stemmed
from accusations made in 2014 by a man who claimed she defamed him
on Facebook, which she denied. In the twisted, Orwellian nature of
the Azeri justice system, she was first arrested in December on a
charge of inciting a former colleague to attempt suicide and since has
been slapped with new charges, including embezzlement, tax evasion,
illegal entrepreneurship and abuse of power.
Mr. Aliyev seems particularly uncomfortable with the work of the
Azerbaijani service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, to which Ms.
Ismayilova had contributed. On the same day as her snap trial, a
former chief of the service's Baku bureau was stopped at the airport,
prevented from boarding a plane and told he was under a travel ban at
the request of the prosecutor's office. More than 26 journalists and
staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty have been interrogated by
Azeri authorities since a Dec. 26 raid on the Baku bureau. The news
organization is funded by the United States through the Broadcasting
Board of Governors.
In a recent magazine advertisement, Mr. Aliyev said he wanted to make
Azerbaijan "one of the most developed and competitive countries in
the world." It certainly won't become that if he continues to rule
like a despot.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/letter-from-an-azerbaijani-prison/2015/02/17/2a2d6cb0-b3d3-11e4-886b-c22184f27c35_story.html
http://armenpress.am/eng/news/796105/aliyev-is-showing-signs-of-a-frantic-despotism-the-washington-post.html
From: A. Papazian