Azerbaijan takes step in right direction by dropping new charges against Mehman Huseynov

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship welcomes reports that new criminal charges against Azerbaijani journalist and human rights defender Mehman Huseynov have been dropped.

Mehman Huseynov is short-listed for the Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2019 in the journalism category “for courageous, high-impact and determined journalism that exposes censorship and threats to free expression”.

However, he remains in prison on a previous conviction, widely seen as politically motivated. International organisations continue to call for his release.

Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Index on Censorship said “Index is pleased that the new charges against Mehman Huseynov have reportedly been dropped, but he should not remain in prison on the earlier, unjustified charges. We urge Azerbaijan to free Mehman Huseynov immediately.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1548234806594-889c5f6f-f3c7-0″ taxonomies=”4742, 5113″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Index renews calls for Azerbaijan to release journalist Afgan Mukhtarli

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Afgan Mukhtarli. Credit: Meydan TV

Afgan Mukhtarli. Credit: Meydan TV

Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli, who had investigated government corruption, fled the country in fear in 2014 and travelled to Georgia. On 29 May 2017 Mukhtarli vanished while in Tbilisi and reappeared the following day back in Azerbaijan. He was charged with illegally crossing a state border, smuggling and resisting a representative of the government using violence.

“Afgan Mukhtarli’s case is a shocking example of how journalists are treated in Azerbaijan,” Joy Hyvarinen, head of advocacy at Index on Censorship, said. “The European Parliament has urged the European Union to ensure that Azerbaijan frees its political prisoners before negotiations on a new partnership deal between the EU and Azerbaijan are concluded and specifically mentioned Afgan Mukhtarli. It is very important that the EU takes a strong line on this in the talks.”

The European Parliament passed a resolution on 15 June 2017 condemning Mukhtarli’s abduction, urging Georgian authorities to investigate and expressing concern at Azerbaijan targeting critics living in exile. Additionally, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe general rapporteur on media freedom and the safety of journalists expressed concern on 20 June 2017.

After more than a year in detention, Mukhtarli was sentenced on 12 January 2018 to six years in prison. This ruling was upheld on appeal on 18 September 2018. Mukhtarli told his lawyer that unidentified men wearing Georgian criminal police uniforms were present when he was pushed into a car, beaten and driven to the Azerbaijani border. The sum of €10,000 was planted on Mukhtarli when he was apprehended. Georgian authorities launched an investigation but have not made progress and refuse to recognise Mukhtarli as a victim of a crime.

Mukhtarli’s sentence and treatment while in detention have been condemned by the US Department of State, Amnesty International, OSCE media freedom representative Desir and the European External Action Service, who call for his release.

At the time of his abduction, Mukhtarli had been investigating business links between Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and former Georgian prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. He accused the Georgian authorities of being complicit, stating that “without the permission of the prime minister, they would not have been able to get me across the border”.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1548087608735-4abd0122-06f9-7″ taxonomies=”7145″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Escalating repression against Mehman Huseynov

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”104696″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]We 39 human rights organisations from 13 Human Rights Houses call for urgent action from the international community to ensure the life, health, and rights of imprisoned Azerbaijani photojournalist, video blogger, and human rights defender Mehman Huseynov. We are deeply concerned about his critical condition and his imprisonment, and the psychological pressure and new criminal charges pursued against him. We urge the international community to raise this case as a priority in communications with the Azerbaijani authorities and show public support for Mehman Huseynov.

Mehman Huseynov began a hunger strike on 26 December 2018 in protest against facing further criminal charges – charges that we and many others, including the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, consider to not be credible. Since 2012, Mehman Huseynov has been subject to a travel ban and without identification and official documentation, preventing him from accessing public services such as healthcare and education. He has also faced harassment and pressure, but actions against him have escalated dramatically in the past two years, beginning with reports that he was abducted and tortured in police custody on 9 January 2017.

Following this abduction, Mehman Huseynov reported that he was tortured – which is consistent with the findings of an examination by an independent team of medical doctors, sent from Front Line Defenders and the Georgian Centre of Psychological and Medical Rehabilitation for Torture. He was sentenced to two years in prison for defamation on 3 March 2017 for stating that he was tortured. We regret that he was imprisoned when he should have received support and his allegations of abduction and torture investigated. Still in prison, he now faces new criminal charges for alleged violence against a member of prison staff. We are particularly concerned about the credibility of this allegation, in context of previous arbitrary actions against Mehman Huseynov – and indications that since August 2018 he has been under psychological pressure in prison and the basis laid for further charges against him.

The actions taken against Mehman Huseynov appear to be politically motivated and strongly linked to his legitimate work raising awareness of human rights and issues related to corruption. These actions have led directly to his current severe condition, as with seemingly no access to justice and arbitrary restriction of his freedom, Mehman Huseynov saw no other option than to go on hunger strike on 26 December 2018. Further contributing to his condition, we note that while Mehman Huseynov was allowed to attend his late Mother’s funeral in August 2018, he was prevented from visiting her while she was alive and ill in hospital – on accusations that he has not participated in “corrective work”, namely the prison’s “social life”, “cultural events”, and “maintenance work.” These accusations also surfaced during Mehman Huseynov’s hearing on application for parole in August 2018. During the hearing, Mehman Huseynov told that he had been summoned by the prison administration and made to understand that he could be punished for explaining rights to other prisoners. He explained that he decided to stay apart from others for this reason. We worry that the decision by authorities to prevent Mehman Huseynov from visiting his dying mother has taken its toll on him.

Years of escalating pressure by authorities has forced an ambitious young man wanting to improve Azerbaijani society to now be in a critical condition in prison. This is a situation that has gone too far, for both Mehman Huseynov and for Azerbaijan.

With urgency, we call on the international community to raise the following with Azerbaijani authorities in support of Mehman Huseynov.

  • Mehman Huseynov needs to be transferred to a civilian hospital to be examined by independent medical professionals – with treatment of his health taking utmost priority.
  • His right to visits and meetings with his lawyers and family members must be respected, and the international community must be allowed to visit him. We caution against reports being disseminated by Azerbaijani officials with regard to a “monitoring group of NGOs” named the “National Preventive Group of the Azerbaijani Ombudsman” visiting Mehman Huseynov in prison. While this visit has taken place, we hold that these NGOs are not independent of the authorities.
  • The prosecution service must drop the new criminal charges put forward under 317.2 of the Azerbaijan Criminal Code as they lack credibility.
  • Mehman Huseynov must be released from prison at the latest when his sentence for defamation ends on 2 March 2019.
  • The escalation against Mehman Huseynov has an aim, and that is to silence him. We are particularly worried that the next step for the authorities may be to take measures aimed at silencing Mehman Huseynov more permanently, pressuring him by offering to drop the charges against him in return for him leaving Azerbaijan for exile or signing that he will put an end to his legitimate work, as this has been the issue in previous cases. We fear such measures may be put to him under duress and while he may be in a diminished capacity to make decisions. He must not be forced to take such action, and he needs protection from the international community in this regard.
  • Human rights lawyers in Azerbaijan must be protected and free to do their work without pressure, harassment or retaliation. As outlined in a June 2017 Human Rights Council resolution, lawyers must be able to “discharge their functions freely, independently and without any fear of reprisal”. This is not the case in Azerbaijan, where lawyers who take politically sensitive cases face threats and disbarment. The result is that only a handful of human rights lawyers remain licensed to practice from the Bar Association of Azerbaijan. One lawyer representing Mehman Huseynov was suspended from the Bar in 2018. We are deeply concerned the same actions may be taken in retaliation against the two lawyers continuing to represent Mehman Huseynov. They need protection from the international community.

We also ask members of the international community to:

  • Visit Mehman Huseynov in prison to enquire and report directly on his condition, challenging the Azerbaijani authorities to ensure that such visits are possible.
  • Show public support for Mehman Huseynov and publicly respond to the new charges.

The following member organisations from the network Human Rights Houses call for support from the international to ensure the life, health, and rights of Mehman Huseynov.

Human Rights House Azerbaijan (signed by these member NGOs):

  • Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center
  • Legal Education Society
  • Women’s Association for Rational Development (WARD)

Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House, Vilnius (signed by these member NGOs):

  • Belarusian PEN Centre

Human Rights House Belgrade (signed by these member NGOs):

  • Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
  • Gradjanske (Civic Initiatives)

Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv (signed by these member NGOs):

  • Ahalar
  • Almenda
  • Association of Ukrainian human rights monitors on Law Enforcement
  • East-SOS
  • Chernihiv public committee of human rights protection
  • Human Rights Information Centre
  • MART
  • No Borders Project
  • Postup
  • Transcarpathian Public Center
  • Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union

Human Rights House Crimea (signed by these member NGOs):

  • Almenda
  • Crimean Human Rights Group
  • Human Rights Information Centre
  • Regional Centre for Human Rights

Human Rights House Oslo (signed by these member NGOs):

  • Den norske Burmakomité (The Norwegian Burma Committee)
  • Fellesrådet for Afrika (The Norwegian Council for Africa)
  • Health and Human Rights Info
  • Human Rights House Foundation
  • Kvinnefronten (The Women’s Front)

Human Rights House Tbilisi (signed by these member NGOs):

  • Article 42 of the Constitution
  • Georgian Centre for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT)
  • Human Rights Centre (HRIDC)
  • Media Institute
  • Sapari

Human Rights House Voronezh (signed by these member NGOs):

  • Interregional Human Rights Group (Voronezh)
  • Charitable Foundation “International Project – Youth Human Rights Movement”

Human Rights House Zagreb (signed by these member NGOs):

  • Association for Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO)
  • a.B.e. (Be active. Be emancipated.)
  • Center for Peace Studies
  • Croatian Platform for International Citizen Solidarity – CROSOL
  • Documenta – Center for Dealing with the Past

Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Poland

Index on Censorship, United Kingdom

Rafto Foundation for Human Rights, Norway

Russian Research Centre for Human Rights, Russia[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1547220388132-791b0ba5-0ebf-4″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Send a letter to imprisoned Azerbaijani journalist Seymur Hezi

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Seymur Hezi was arrested in August 2014. He was subsequently convicted of aggravated hooliganism and sentenced to five years in prison.

Journalist Seymur Hezi was arrested in August 2014. He was subsequently convicted of aggravated hooliganism and sentenced to five years in prison.

The editors of the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award-winning newspaper Azadliq have launched a letter-writing campaign to journalist Seymur Hezi, who is in prison.

The letters will be printed out and sent to Penitentiary No. 17 where Hezi is detained.

Rahim Haciyev, acting editor of Azadliq newspaper, said Hezi’s health is suffering due to the prison conditions but he continues to write about the country’s recent political history.

Hezi was sentenced five years in prison in 2015 for “aggravated hooliganism”, according to Azadlıq Radiosu.

He was previously charged with disorderly conduct in 2014 after an altercation where the journalist defended himself from a physical assault and harassment, according to his lawyers.

The reason for Hezi’s imprisonment is seen as politically influenced due to his public activities. Haciyev said Hezi published critical articles of the authorities in the newspaper, along with critiques in his online TV broadcast “Azerbaijani Hour”.

The journalist’s family and lawyers say that his sentencing was politically motivated and biased. [/vc_column_text][vc_cta h2=”Take Action” color=”pink”]

Send a letter of support to Seymur Hezi

[/vc_cta][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”12″ style=”load-more” items_per_page=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1540207662388-f8c2a9c0-3f00-3″ taxonomies=”115″][/vc_column][/vc_row]