Amnesty International Report 2017/18

82

Amnesty International Report 2017/18

AZERBAIJAN

Republic of Azerbaijan

Head of state: Ilham Aliyev

Head of government: Artur Rasizade

Authorities intensified the crackdown on the 

right to freedom of expression, particularly 

following revelations of large-scale political 

corruption. Independent news outlets were 

blocked and their owners arrested. Critics of 

the government continued to face politically 

motivated prosecution and imprisonment 

following unfair trials. LGBTI individuals 

were arbitrarily arrested and ill-treated. 

Suspicious deaths in custody were still not 

effectively investigated.

BACKGROUND

In July, renewed hostilities in the breakaway 

region of Nagorno-Karabakh resulted in the 

death of at least two ethnic Azerbaijani 

civilians, including a minor, following shelling 

by the Armenian-backed forces.

Azerbaijan received international attention 

following a report by the Organized Crime 

and Corruption Reporting Project, published 

in September, which accused members of 

Azerbaijan’s political elite of operating a large 

international money laundering scheme. Part 

of the money was allegedly used to pay 

European politicians to help whitewash 

Azerbaijan’s human rights reputation, among 

other things. On 11 October, the 

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of 

Europe (PACE) adopted two critical 

resolutions on Azerbaijan following allegations 

that some members of the PACE had 

benefited from the money laundering 

scheme.

On 5 December, the Committee of Ministers 

of the Council of Europe triggered 

infringement proceedings against Azerbaijan 

under Article 46.4 of the European 

Convention on Human Rights. This followed 

its repeated failure to implement the decision 

of the European Court of Human Rights 

(ECtHR) in the case of opposition leader Ilgar 

Mammadov to immediately release him; he 

had been arbitrarily detained since 2013.

The EU and Azerbaijan proceeded with 

negotiations over a new strategic partnership 

agreement to deepen their economic 

relationship. In October, the European Bank 

for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) 

approved a USD500 million loan for the 

construction of a government-owned gas 

pipeline. This was despite Azerbaijan’s 

suspension from the EBRD-endorsed 

international oil and gas transparency 

initiative in March 2017, due to its repression 

of civil society.

FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

Leading human rights organizations 

remained unable to resume their work. The 

authorities continued using restrictive 

regulations and arbitrary prosecution to close 

down the few remaining critical organizations.

On 2 May, Aziz Orujev, head of the 

independent online TV channel Kanal 13, 

was arrested by a police officer who claimed 

he looked like a wanted fugitive and 

remanded him to 30 days of administrative 

detention for purportedly disobeying police 

orders. On the day of his release, Aziz Orujev 

was remanded on fabricated charges of 

illegal entrepreneurship and abuse of office, 

and ordered to pre-trial detention. On 15 

December Baku Court on Grave Crimes 

sentenced him to six years’ imprisonment.

In August, the prosecution opened an 

investigation into Azerbaijan’s only remaining 

independent news agency, Turan, and 

arrested its director, Mehman Aliyev, on 

fabricated charges of illegal 

entrepreneurship. Following international 

pressure, Mehman Aliyev was transferred to 

house arrest on 11 September. On 2 

November, the prosecution dropped the 

charges against him and closed the 

investigation against Turan.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

All mainstream media remained under 

effective government control, with 

independent media outlets facing undue 

restrictions and media workers facing 

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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

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harassment. Access to opposition newspaper 

websites was blocked.

Radio Azadliq (Radio Free Europe/Radio 

Liberty Azerbaijani service), Meydan TV, and 

Azerbaycan SAATI, remained blocked 

following a claim by the prosecutor’s office 

that they posed a threat to national security. 

On 12 May, a court in the capital, Baku, 

ruled in favour of keeping the websites 

blocked.

PROSECUTION OF CRITICS

The authorities continued to arbitrarily arrest 

and detain independent journalists and 

bloggers. According to Azerbaijani human 

rights defenders more than 150 people 

remained in prison on politically motivated 

charges, and the number of such cases 

continued to grow.

On 9 January, police officers detained and 

held blogger Mehman Huseynov overnight in 

incommunicado detention. He reported that 

he was beaten by the police and subjected to 

electric shocks while in custody. On 3 March, 

a court in Baku sentenced him to two years 

in prison for “defaming” police officers.

On 12 January, Afgan Sadygov, a journalist 

and blogger from Jalilabad District, was 

sentenced to two and a half years in prison. 

He was prosecuted under hooliganism 

charges, after writing about government 

corruption and refusing to remove his articles 

from the internet.

On 14 June, Fikret Faramazoglu, editor of 

the independent news website Journalistic 

Research Centre, was sentenced to seven 

years in prison and banned from his 

profession for a further two years. He had 

been detained on 30 June 2016 for allegedly 

extorting money from a restaurant owner, 

charges that he denied.

FORCIBLE RETURNS

The authorities intensified their clampdown 

on critics who had fled the country, and 

unlawfully transferred many of them back to 

Azerbaijan and harassed their families.

Investigative journalist Afgan Mukhtarli was 

abducted in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, on 

29 May, and reappeared in the custody of 

Azerbaijani border police the following day. 

He said he had been abducted and trafficked 

across the border by security services, who 

accused him of a range of offences including 

smuggling. He remained in detention and his 

trial was ongoing at the end of the year.

Russian-Israeli-Ukrainian blogger Aleksandr 

Lapshin, who published critical posts on the 

situation in Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-

Karabakh region, was arrested in Belarus, 

and extradited to Azerbaijan in February. In 

July, a court in Baku sentenced him to three 

years in prison for entering the breakaway 

region illegally. He was released on 11 

September after a presidential pardon.

RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, 

TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE

On 22 September, more than 100 LGBTI 

individuals were rounded up by the police in 

public spaces and detained. Some were 

released, but at least 48 were sentenced to 

administrative detention, ranging from 10 to 

20 days. They were accused of “resisting 

police’s legitimate orders”, and found guilty 

on the basis of police officers’ allegations, 

without any further evidence. The summary 

hearings fell short of international trial 

standards. The detainees said they had been 

beaten by the police and subjected to other 

ill-treatment while in custody. All were 

released on 2 October.

UNFAIR TRIALS

Unfair trials were commonplace, particularly 

in politically motivated proceedings, during 

which suspects were typically detained and 

charged without access to a lawyer of their 

choice. Police continued using torture and 

other ill-treatment to extract forced 

confessions which were later used by judges 

as incriminating evidence. Allegations of 

torture and other ill-treatment were not 

effectively investigated.

On 25 January, the Baku Serious Crimes 

Court sentenced 18 men associated with the 

Shi’ite Muslim Unity Movement (MUM) in 

Nardaran to lengthy prison terms. Their trial 

did not meet international standards of 

fairness and was marred by numerous torture 

allegations. During the trial, the defendants 

complained of having been tortured into 

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