Pressure on Azerbaijan human rights defenders raised in post-election time

In the situation of mass repressions after disputed elections of October 15, 2003, the pressure increased on the human rights defenders of Azerbaijan. In particular, the following persons were harassed:

• Mr. Azer Hasret, chairman of the Journalists? Trade Union of Azerbaijan, was beaten by police while monitoring an unapproved meeting in Baku on October 16.
• Mr. Ilqar Altay, head of the ad hoc Committee to Protect Rights of MP Iqbal Agazade (who was arrested on October 17) was arrested himself on October 18 and sentenced to 7 days of administrative arrest. His whereabouts are still unknown. He is active as an independent forensic expert and participant in fact-finding missions.
• Mr. Mehdi Mehdiyev, director of the Human Rights Resource Center in Baku, was harassed by policemen who twice summoned him to the police office and morally pressed to force witnesses against the opposition leaders and his namesake, politician Mehdi Mehdiyev. He also reportedly got phone threats his family members or he would be kidnapped.
• Mr. Ilqar Ibrahimoglu, chairman of the Center for Protection of Religious Freedom (DEVAMM), Imam (leader of community) of the Cuma Mosque in Icheri Sheher, Baku, has been repeatedly threatened with arrest since October 17. These threats accompanied with false accusations that he had prepared coup d'etat, he bore relation to the Islamic terrorists, etc. were widely spread by pro-governmental TV channels. The policemen reportedly took 2 people among the Mosque clergy hostages to force him to come to the police office and liberated them only after drastic protests of diplomats. He spent several days in the Norwegian Embassy to secure himself from the arrest.
• Mrs. Nushaba Mammedova, a representative of the Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan in the Gandjabasar zone. After police officers had harassed her brother Murshud Mammedly, a famous opposition politician, and arrested her nephew, a group of policemen visited her house with uncertain intentions on October 21. Fortunately, she was absent.

Moreover, no sooner had the autumn session of the parliament begun, its pro-governmental members (M. Huseynova, B. Muradova) publicly appealed to punish the human rights defenders from Azerbaijan. Even vice chairperson of the standing parliamentary commission on human rights Mrs. Rabiyyat Aslanova was among members of the parliament who blamed the human rights defenders. She urged to exile them. So, the legislative authority arouses hostility against the human rights activists.

The Federation of Human Rights Organizations of Azerbaijan urges the foreign diplomats, intergovernmental organizations and foreign human rights defenders to express concern to the government about the new wave of pressure on human rights defenders in Azerbaijan.

Baku, October 21, 2003