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URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY

New information

AZE 002 / 0414 / OBS 031.10

Arbitrary detention / Deterioration of health /

Violation of right to medical treatment /

Judicial harassment

Azerbaijan

October 28,2015

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a jointprogramme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and theInternational Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has received new information andrequests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Azerbaijan.

Newinformation:

TheObservatory has been informed by reliable sources about new developmentsconcerning the appeal trial against Ms. Leyla Yunus, Director of theInstitute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) and a member of OMCT General Assembly,and Mr. Arif Yunusov, husband of Ms. Yunus and Head of the ConflictologyDepartment of IPD.

According tothe information received, on October 20, the Baku Court of Appeal decided torefer the criminal case against Leyla Yunus and Arif Yunusov back to the BakuGrave Crimes Court, following a complaint filed by their lawyer, Mr. Elchin Sadiqov, highlightinginaccuracies in the minutes of the hearings of the first instance trial.Accordingly, judge Vugar Mammadov postponed the hearing sine die,pending a ruling by the Baku Grave Crimes Court on the comments filed by thelawyer.

According tothe same information, both Leyla Yunus and Arif Yunusov were once again placedin a glass courtroom cage, surrounded this time by a line of 25 bailiffs andguards, so as not to allow them to see or hear what was happening during thehearing.

Besides, theObservatory was also informed that the preparatory hearing in the case againstjournalist Mr. Rauf Mirqadirov, accused of state treason, has beenscheduled for November 4, 2015 before the Baku Grave Crimes Court. Mr.Mirqadirov was arrested on April 19, 2014[1]on allegations of spying for Armenia. Shortly after, Ms. Yunus and Mr. Yunusovhad been questioned in relation to the case brought against Mr. Mirqadirov (seebackground information). Over the past months, the health condition of Mr.Mirqadirov has been deteriorating while in detention.

TheObservatory urges the Azeri authorities to immediately put an end to thejudicial harassment against Ms. Yunus, Mr. Yunusov, and Mr. Mirqadirov, astheir detention and judicial harassment is only aimed at sanctioning theirhuman rights activities, amidst a wave of ongoing repression against civilsociety organisations and representatives in Azerbaijan. The Observatory alsocalls on the authorities to urgently provide adequate medical care to Ms. Yunusand Mr. Yunusov, including medication and hospitalisation as required.

Backgroundinformation:

Ms. LeylaYunus has long fought for human rights and the rights of ethnic minorities inher country. She has been heading the IPD since 1995. In October 2014, Ms.Leyla Yunus was awarded the Polish Prize of Sérgio Vieira de Mello, and wasamong the three finalists for the Sakharov Prize. She also received thedistinction of “Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur” of theFrench Republic in 2013. She has worked on numerous projects relating to humanrights, political persecution, corruption, human trafficking, gender-basedissues and violations of the right to property. Ms. Yunus and two otherdetained human rights defenders, Messrs. Intigam Aliyev and Rasul Jafarov, were members of a groupcompiling a list of political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

With herhusband, Ms. Yunus has also worked towards reconciliation between Azerbaijanand Armenia, two countries divided by the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakhregion. Ms. Leyla Yunus has been involved since 2005 in the “Track IIDiplomacy” Initiative, and initiated a project of dialogue between Azeri andArmenians, developed jointly with a regional research centre in Armenia.

On April 28,2014, Ms. Leyla Yunus was reportedly invited to the InvestigationDepartment of Serious Crimes of the Office of Prosecutor General ofAzerbaijan in order to testify as a witness in the criminal caseagainst journalist Mr. RaufMirqadirov, columnist and press correspondent in Turkey for the independentnewspaper Zerkalo. Later in the evening, Ms. Leyla Yunus and Mr. ArifYunusov, who had just left a hospital where he was treated for heart problems,were accompanied in a diplomatic car to the Baku Heydar Aliyev InternationalAirport, as they were planning to fly to Paris via Doha. After check-in,the Yunus couple was stopped by the border guards, and were eventually allowedto cross the border only after the intervention of diplomats. However, ataround 11.30 p.m., both were deprived from their boarding passes and passports,and told that they were banned from leaving the country. The authorities seizedtheir luggage, conducted a search without presenting them any court order, andseized a laptop, a video camera, USB flash drives and paper records. Theirlawyer Khalid Bagirov was denied access to the couple.

On April 29,2014, after being kept awake the whole night, Ms. Yunus wasinterrogated in relation to the case against journalist Rauf Mirqadirov.

Ms. Yunus’questioning lasted nine hours, and questions all focused on joint projectsbetween the IPD and Armenian NGOs, as well as on her relations with journalistMr. Rauf Mirqadirov. Following this questioning, IPD’s premises were searchedand the authorities seized all the computers and books belonging to Mr.Yunusov, along with printed documents, including the business card of anArmenian historian. Shortly after, IPD’s bank accounts were frozen. Ms. Yunusand Mr. Yunusov were subsequently released.

On July 30,2014, Ms. Yunus was arrested again by the Prosecutor’s office employees oncharges of “treason” (Article 274 of the Criminal Code), “large-scale fraud”(Article 178.3.2), “forgery” (Article 320), “tax evasion” (Article 213), and“illegal business” (Article 192), and brought to the department of grave crimesof the General Prosecutor’s Office, where she had to undergo a six-hourquestioning. Informed by telephone, her husband joined her at the department ofgrave crimes of the General Prosecutor’s Office, where he was also questioned.Ms. Yunus and Mr. Yunusov were both formally charged, and placed in pre-trialdetention. Mr. Yunusov was later placed under house arrest, and arrested againon August 5, for violation of his conditional sentence. Since that date, Mr.Arif Yunusov has been held at the Investigative Prison of the Ministry ofNational Security, the only remaining prison in Azerbaijan which is notsubordinated to the Ministry of Justice. This situation puts him at a high riskof facing torture and ill-treatment and the absence of a proper medical unit inthis prison has been denounced by various international human rights bodiessuch as the United Nations (UN) Committee Against Torture (CAT) or the EuropeanCommittee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT).

Followinginternational criticism over harsh conditions of detention, Ms. Yunus wasexamined in December 2014 by German doctor Christian Witt, whose officialresults have not been made public. Ms. Yunus’ lawyer, who visited her onFebruary 8, nonetheless reported that she was suffering from sight problems,and that she was continuing to lose weight. Ms. Yunus, who was repeatedlydenied access to medication by the prison authorities, allegedly lost 16kilograms since her arrest. At a recent hearing on October 15, 2015, shemanaged to denounce the denial of a two-month medical treatment in jailhospital reportedly prescribed by German doctor Christian Witt, as she wasactually allowed to spend only 6 days in hospital and has not received therequired treatments since then. In addition, on October 18, 2014,Ms. Leyla Yunus was transferred to the Investigative Prison of theMinistry of National Security, where she was held until October 24 beforebeing transferred back to Kurdakhani prison.

Furthermore,at the end of 2014, Ms. Leyla Yunus was deprived of her lawyer, Mr. JavadJavadov, following his criticism of the judicial process against Ms.Leyla Yunus during a court hearing on October 24, 2014. A few dayslater, her second lawyer, Mr. Khalid Bagirov, was also removed from thecase. Her third lawyer, Mr. Alaif Hasanov, has been subjectedto a lawsuit by Ms. Nuriya Huseynova – a cellmate of Leyla Yunus –who accused him of passing information to the media. Mr. Alaif Hasanov wasthe first lawyer to speak out about the physical pressure exercisedby her cell mate over Ms. Leyla Yunus.

On January5, 2015 and February 2, 2015, the cEuropean Court of Human Rights communicatedon two applications filed for violations of the rights of Ms. Leyla Yunus andMr. Arif Yunusov.

On February18, 2015, the pre-trial detention of Ms.Yunus was extended until July 28, 2015,and on February 23, 2015, the pre-trial detention of Mr. Yunusov was extendedto August 5, 2015.

On July 15,2015, a pre-trial hearing was held at the Baku Grave Crimes Court. Ms. Yunusand Mr. Yunusov were placed in a glass courtroom cage, with their Azeri toRussian interpreter sitting near the cage (both are Russian-speaking persons,and the hearings are held in Azeri).

At thathearing, the lawyer of Ms. Leyla Yunus filed three petitions. First, he askedthe judge to authorise the accused to sit beside her lawyer so as to ensure theright to be presumed innocent until proven guilty and to fully guarantee theright to be assisted by a lawyer. Second, he requested permission to videotapeand/or record all the hearings pursuant to the principle of publicity ofdebates. Third, because of the worrying health condition of Ms. Yunus, thelawyer requested that the current measure of imprisonment be changed into housearrest.

The lawyersof Ms. Yunus further argued that her continued detention was life threatening,highlighting that Ms. Yunus is suffering from diabetes, hepatitis C, and aliver enlargement and deterioration.

At the samehearing, the lawyer of Mr. Arif Yunusov filed a petition requesting that theaccused be allowed to sit beside his lawyer and that all charges against him bedropped in the absence of evidence of guilt. The lawyer also denounced the poorconditions of detention of his client at the Investigative prison of the Ministryof National Security, where Mr. Arif Yunusov suffersfrom insomnia high blood pressure.

Theprosecutor asked the court to reject all five petitions. His request wasaccepted by the judge

On July 27and 28, 2015, the trial on the merits started at the Baku Grave Crimes Court,presided by judge Mr. Afgan Hajiyev.

On July 27,around 25 local and international observers and journalists were not allowedinto the courtroom, including the observer of the Observatory, a number ofdiplomats, as well as journalists from the BBC. By the time the main entrancewas opened, the room was indeed already almost full of persons whom some localactivists and journalists identified as court staff and staff from the Ministryof National Security. Moreover, the trial was held in the smallest courtroom,although some of the larger ones were empty at the time. Similar limitations tothe principle of transparency and publicity of judicial debates were also notedin the framework of subsequent hearings on July 28, August 3, August 10 andAugust 13.

At theJuly-28 hearing, various witnesses were called to testify and declared that theactivities of Ms. Yunus had never caused any loss or violations of theirrights. The prosecution asked various questions about Ms. Leyla Yunus' workwith Armenian organisations, evidencing the political motivations around thecase. The prosecutor also groundlessly accused Ms. Yunus of having received agrant of 700,000 manat (approximately 610,000 euros) and having onlytransferred 76,000 (approximately 61,000 euros) to the account of an NGO called"Society of Women of the Caucasus for Peace and Democracy". Finally,the defence requested that the ex-wife of journalist Mr. Rauf Mirqadirov be excluded from thelist of witnesses, since her testimony had no relation with the merits of thecharges being pressed, but the court did not consider the petition.

At thehearing of August 3, 2015, an ambulance was called in order to provide firstaid healthcare to Mr. Yunusov, who fainted due to a worryingly high arterialpressure. Around 11.50, Mr. Yunusov regained consciousness. Last year, Mr.Yunusov had already undergone two hypertensive crises, during his arrest andthe search of his apartment. According to lawyer Afghan Mammadov, the doctor ofthe National Security prison who was called to the court after the healthincident, reportedly stated that Mr. Yunusov health condition did not allow himto further participate in the trial. However, the judge decided to adjourn thehearing to the next day, August 4, 2015.

At theAugust-6 hearing, the Prosecutor requested respectively 11 and 9 years in jailfor Ms. Yunus and Mr. Yunusov.

On August10, the hearing was interrupted after only 15 minutes, as Ms. Yunus refused tobe further assisted by two Azeri to Russian interpreters provided by the court,who translated her testimony incorrectly on two occasions. On that day, bothMs. Yunus and Mr. Yunusov looked extremely ill. Mr. Yunusov was accompanied by adoctor in the courtroom and had to take some medicines while sitting in theglass cage. Due to this translation issue, the trial was adjourned to August13, 2015.

On August 13, Ms. Yunus and Mr. Yunusov were convicted to 8.5 and 7 years in jail respectively. Mr.Arif Yunusov fainted while making his final plea, and once again requiredimmediate medical attention.

On October 12, the appeal trial of Ms. Leyla and Mr. Arif Yunusov openedbefore the Baku Court of Appeal. The hearing was adjourned to October15 after only 15 minutes, since Ms. Yunus had received the translation of thecharges-sheet into Russian on the day of the session itself.

On October15, the trial resumed with the presence of diplomats, representatives of localand international human rights organisations and international trial observers,including one mandated by the Observatory.

At the startof the hearing, Mr. Arif Yunusov was placed into a glass cabin. Ms. Yunus wasthen brought into the room, and appeared very weak. She nonetheless managed todenounce the denial of the medical treatment prescribed by German doctorChristian Witt. She spoke emotionally, was extremely anxious and resistedguards who did not allow her to speak and tried to take her into the cabin. Theobservers in the room stood up as a sign of solidarity with Ms. Yunus. Thejudge requested silence, and ordered an opposition leader present in the room tobe taken out.

The judgesubsequently approved a motion filed by defence lawyer Mr. Elchin Sadiqov to postpone the hearing, as he neededtime to study court protocols and documents. The trial was thereforere-scheduled to October 20, 2015. The October-15 hearing lasted only 7 minutes,in a noisy environment. As the judge was speaking, Ms. Yunus complained thatshe could not hear him from the glass cabin where she and her husband wereheld.

Action requested:

Please write to the authorities inAzerbaijan, urging them to:

i. Guarantee in all circumstancesthe physical and psychological integrity of Ms. Leyla Yunus, Mr. Arif Yunusov,Mr. Rauf Mirqadirov and all human rights defenders in Azerbaijan;

ii. Urgently provide adequatemedical care to Ms. Leyla Yunus and Mr. Arif Yunusov, including medication andhospitalisation as required;

iii. Put an end to any kind ofharassment - including at the judicial and investigatory levels - against Ms.Leyla Yunus, Mr. Arif Yunusov, Mr. Rauf Mirqadirov and more generally all humanrights defenders in Azerbaijan;

iv. Conform with the provisions ofthe UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assemblyof the United Nations on December 9, 1998, especially:

- Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right,individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for theprotection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at thenational and international levels”;

- Article 5, which underscores the right of every individual toform, join, and participate in non-governmental organizations; and

- Article 12.2, which provides that the State shall “take allnecessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities ofeveryone, individually and in association with others, against any violence,threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure orany other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exerciseof his or her rights”;

v. Ensure in all circumstances respectfor human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with internationalhuman rights standards and international instruments ratified by Azerbaijan.

Addresses:

· Mr. Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic ofAzerbaijan, Office of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, 19Istiqlaliyyat St., Baku AZ1066, Azerbaijan, Fax: (+994) 12 492 06 25, (+994)412 92 28 68, E-mail: office@pa.gov.az, office@apparat.gov.az

· Mr. Zakir Garalov, ProsecutorGeneral of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Prosecutor’s Office, 7 Nigar RafibeyliSt., Baku, Azerbaijan, Fax: (+994) 12 492 06 82, (+994) 12 492 26 63, E-mail:z.qaralov@prosecutor.gov.az,info@prosecutor.gov.az

· Mr. Eldar Mahmudov, Minister ofNational Security, Ministry of National Security of the Republic of Azerbaijan,Parliament Avenue 14, Baku AZ1006, Azerbaijan, Fax: (+994) 12 493-76-22,E-mail: cpr@mns.gov.az

· Mr. Ramil Usubov, Minister of Internal Affairs, Ministry of InternalAffairs of the Azerbaijani Republic, Fax: (+994) 12 492 45 90

· Mr. Elmar Mammadyarov,Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic ofAzerbaijan, E-mail: katiblik@mfa.gov.az

· Mr. Fikrat F. Mammadov,Minister of Justice in Azerbaijan, Inshaatchilar Prospekti, 1 Baku, Azerbaijan,e-mail: contact@justice.gov.az; Fax (+994) 12 43009 81

· H.E. Mr. Murad N. Najafbayli,Ambassador, Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to the United Nations in Geneva, Route des Fayards 237, CH-1290 Versoix, Switzerland, Fax: (+41) 22 901 1844, E-mail: geneva@mission.mfa.gov.az

· Embassy of Azerbaijan in Brussels, Avenue Moliere 464,1050 Brussels, Belgium, Fax: (+32) 2 345 91 85

Please also write to the diplomatic missions orembassies of Azerbaijan in your respective country as well as to the EU diplomatic missionsor embassies in Azerbaijan.

***

Geneva-Paris, October 28,2015

Kindlyinform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in yourreply.

TheObservatory, an OMCT and FIDH venture, is dedicated to the protection of HumanRights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.

Tocontact the Observatory, call the emergency line:

• E-mail: Appeals@fidh-omct.org

· Tel and fax OMCT + 41(0) 22 809 49 39 / + 41 22 809 49 29

· Tel and fax FIDH + 33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18 / +33 1 43 55 18 80

[1] Mr. Rauf Mirqadirov was deprivedof his journalist accreditation in Turkey without any formal reason, deportedto Azerbaijan and arrested on his arrival to Baku on April 19, 2014 onaccusations of spying for Armenia (see background information).