The United Nations find the detention of Hilal Mammadov arbitrary; immediate release and compensation requested

Mr. Hilal Mammadov is a defender of the rights ofthe Talysh ethnic minority and Editor-in-chief of the Tolishi-Sado (Voice ofTalysh) newspaper. He was arrested on June 21, 2012, and sentenced to fiveyears in prison following unfair proceedings lodged on the basis of spuriouscriminal offences relating to “illegal selling of drugs”, “high treason”, and“incitement to national, racial, social and religious hatred and hostility”under Articles 234.4.3, 274 and 283 of the Azeri Criminal Code. Mr. Mammadov hasremained detained since then. The Observatory has been following his situationvery closely since his arrest.

( The opinion of the UN WGAD (A/HRC/WGAD/2013/59) was adoptedduring its 68th session held in November 2013, and transmitted onMarch 19, 2014 to the Observatory as the “source” of the information the WGADreceived on the case.

According to the WGAD “theGovernment did not provide any satisfactory explanation as to the allegationsput forward by the source concerning the arbitrary character of the chargesagainst Mr. Mammadov and his subsequent conviction” and “the response from theGovernment does not adequately address the source's allegations ofill-treatment (…) in detention, its concerns for his health, nor the groundlessrejection of his application for an audio-visual recording of the hearing”.

Accordingly, the UN WGAD concluded that “the charges of treason and incitement to national, racial, social andreligious hatred and hostility are based on Mr. Mammadov's legitimate exerciseof the right of freedom of expression under article 19 of the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights and article 19 of the International Covenant onCivil and Political Rights”, and that the violations of international lawrelating to the right to a fair trial are of such gravity as to give thedeprivation of liberty of Mr. Hilal Mammadov an arbitrary character, undercategories II and III of its methods of work.

The Observatory urges the Azeri authorities to immediatelyand unconditionally release Mr. Hilal Mammadov, in line with the UN WGADopinion, as his conviction and detention is a mere attempt to silence hisefforts to report human rights violations and defend minority rights in hiscountry.