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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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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