Lettre Ouverte de la campaigne Sport For Rights aux co-rapporteurs du PACE
Mr Pedro Agramunt
Mr Tadeusz Iwiński
8 May 2015
Dear Mr Agramuntand Mr Iwiński,
We, theundersigned organisations, are writing to you as supporters of the ‘Sport forRights’ campaign, which has been established to raise the problem of politicalprisoners in the context of the forthcoming international sporting events to behosted by Azerbaijan. Against a backdrop of systematic state-sponsoredrepression, these events will fail to reflect the spirit in which they wereestablished. The next major sporting event is the Baku European Games, developedand regulated by the European Olympic Committees, scheduled for June 2015. Apolicy shift by the Azerbaijani government towards an open society is urgentlyrequired if these Games are to be a success. Moreover, the internationalcommunity should demand the immediate release of political prisoners.
We are addressingyou as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s co-rapporteurs forthe monitoring of Azerbaijan. During your visit to the country in March, youhad the chance to meet with some of the political detainees, including humanrights defender Rasul Jafarov.Jafarov was sentenced on 16 April to six and a half years’ imprisonment.
With respect to your statement from 17April, in which you considered Jafarov’s sentence to be disproportionately long,the undersigned NGOs wish to draw your attention to the fact that when it comesto politically motivated trials, it is difficult to speak about the proportionalityof the penalty. As underscored by the European Court of Human Rights in itsjudgment from May 2014 in the case of Mammadov v. Azerbaijan, politicallymotivated arrests and accusations constitute a violation of Article 5 and Article18 of the Convention.
Opening cases against human rightsdefenders such as Jafarov, based on fabricated allegations, are examples ofAzerbaijan’s intentional actions in violation of the Convention. It isdifficult to speak about the proportionality of the sanctions, when bringing theseindividuals to trial is in itself incompatible with the international obligationsundertaken by Azerbaijan. We appreciated your attention to this point in yourstatement of 24 April on the verdict in the case of human rights lawyer IntigamAliyev.
In your statement on Jafarov’s case,you noted that you “believe that the authorities on the appeal level willundertake appropriate steps to provide fair, equal trial, maintaining the ruleof presumption of innocence, in respect of article 6 of the Convention”. Wewish to point out that the court of first instance has already failed to fulfilits obligations to conduct a fair trial. Monitoring of Jafarov’s trial, carriedout by independent NGOs from across Europe, has revealed a series of graveviolations of Article 6 of the Convention.
According to internationalstandards, the fact that the allegations against the activist were not specifiedby the public prosecutor’s office significantly affected the equality of armsin this case, and should not be accepted. Moreover, all of the alleged victimsof Jafarov’s activities testified that they had not suffered any losses, and thereforedid not want to be considered victims in the case against him. The nationalcourt ignored this fact.
In addition, in the initial phase ofthe trial, the activist was held in a metal cage, which made communication withhis lawyers and an effective defence impossible. The use of metal cages hasbeen recognised as inhuman and degrading treatment in many judgments of the EuropeanCourt of Human Rights.
Similar violations could be observed in the trial ofthe human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev,sentenced on 22 April 2015 for 7.5 years of prison. He has filed numerous caseswith the European Court of Human Rights and as leader of the Legal EducationCentre trained a whole generation of lawyers in Azerbaijan. He was awarded withthe Homo Homini Award in 2012. He was sentenced on the same charges as RasulJafarov.
Moreover, as a result of massiverepressions, well-known Azerbaijani human rights defender Emin Huseynov has been in hiding in the Embassy of Switzerland inBaku for almost eight months. He sought shelter at the Embassy in order toavoid imminent arrest on fabricated charges—an act of revenge by the regime inresponse to his criticism of Azerbaijan’s poor human rights record in theinternational arena. Emin faces chargesunder three articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan: articles 308 (abuse ofoffice), 213 (tax evasion) and 192 (illegal business).
Hard-hittinginvestigative journalist KhadijaIsmayilova has been thrown into jail on similarly fabricated charges –embezzlement, illegal business, tax evasion, and abuse of power. She has beenin pre-trial detention since December 5 on a separate charge of inciting a manto commit suicide. As reported by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), amember of the Sport for Rights coalition, Azerbaijan is the leading jailer ofjournalists in Europe and Central Asia with at least eight journalists inprison.
Another prominentcritic of the Azerbaijan regime, LeylaYunus, who called for a boycott of the European Games due to Baku’sappalling human rights records, was arrested on 30July 2014 on trumped-up charges of treason and other crimes. Her husband, ArifYunus, faced travel restrictions until he too was arrested on 5 August 2014, onsimilar charges. Leyla, who has been denied necessary medical attentionsince her arrest, is currently being held in a detention centre in Baku, just afew miles from the arena where the European Games will soon take place.
The Azerbaijani government’s acts ofrepression against human rights defenders, as well as its regular violations ofits international obligations, deserve to be especially stigmatised. The internationalcommunity, including all of the institutions established for the purpose ofmonitoring Azerbaijan’s democratic progress, should unambiguously condemn RasulJafarov’s and Intigam Aliyev’s convictions and call on President Ilham Aliyev’sadministration to immediately release the arrested activists. We would expectsuch a position from the Parliamentary Assembly’s co-rapporteurs on Azerbaijan.We urge you to acknowledge the political reasons behind the sentencing of thesehuman rights defenders in Azerbaijan, and to call on the Azerbaijaniauthorities to release all jailed human rights defenders.
Sincerely yours,
Thomas Hughes,Executive Director, ARTICLE 19
Mark Fodor, ExecutiveDirector, CEE Bankwatch Network
Danuta Przywara,Director, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights
Petra Havlikova, Project Coordinator of the Women’sRights Are Human Rights Program, NESENHUTÍ
Berit Lindeman,Head of Communication/Senior Advisor, Norwegian Helsinki Committee
AdelaPospichalova, Media Coordinator, People In Need
Emma Hughes,Strategy Director, Platform
Jan Bazyl,Executive Director, Zagranica Group: Polish NGDO Platform