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Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe |
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3
December, 2009 The
1 December, 2009 “Violation of
human rights and democratic freedoms
in THE RIGHT TO LIFE On August 17, 2009 in a prison
hospital died 68-year-old political prisoner Novruzali Mammedov (editor
of the
only Talysh-language newspaper). From the very day of his arrest in January 2007 he was subject to both
physical and
psychological torture. He and
dissident Faina Kungurova who died in the same prison hospital on
November 18, 2007, can be called prisoners of conscience, as neither of
them
committed any crimes. In addition, Kungurova did not last till her
trial. There is no accurate
information on the rate of monthly death cases in detention facilities.
The
Justice Ministry does not disclose exact figures. But according to the
information we could get : Emin Mamedov, Jamal Halilov and Ali Muradov
died in
2007 , in 2008- Arif Aslanov. On August 17,2009, when Novruzali Mamadov
died, 3 more prisoners died as well,
whose names are unknown. Nowadays , Jabir Dadashov was
sentenced for 6 years’ imprisonment in
October, 2007, he has a terrible heart disease. THE RIGHT TO PROTECTION FROM
TORTURE In 2006 Tortures are widely spread
both in police stations (torture begins with the very first minutes of
detention) and detention facilities. Despite a concrete commitment
undertaken
by The European Court of Human
Rights already admitted the facts of torture against prisoners in According to the information
given by the Committee against Torture in 2008, 81 people were tortured and 3 out of 81 died after torture . 110
people were tortured in 2009 and died 6 people. THE RIGHT TO FREE AND FAIR
TRIAL FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND
SELF-EXPRESSION Suppressing
the freedom of speech the authorities of Azerbaijan resort to physical,
out-of-court reprisal and the judiciary system against the mass media
and
journalists. The line after which began
total suppression of journalists is March 02, 2005, when Elmar
Huseynov, editor
and publisher of an independent weekly journal “Monitor”, was
assassinated at
the doorway of his house. In
2007 alone, 103 court hearings were held on lawsuits against
journalists and
the mass media, on charges of defamation. Journalists are charged with also drug possession,
hooliganism, even terrorism. According to the statement
of Miklos Haraszti, OSCE Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Speech, the
number of
imprisoned journalists in There should be noted the fact of sentencing
(on July
23, 2008) scholar-linguist Novruzali Mammedov, editor with “Tolyshi
Sedo”, the
only Talysh-language newspaper, to ten years in prison on false charge
of
espionage for Iran. On August 17, 2009 he died in prison. Physical
assault on journalists, beatings by the police and unknown, abduction,
custody,
humiliation, torture and knife wounds went full blast in 2005. According to a Report issued
by the Institute for Media Rights, 10 facts of assault on journalists
were
documented in 2005. In 2006 among other
facts of assault the abduction of Bakhadin Gaziyev, editor with
newspaper
“Bizim Yol”, was especially severe. He was tortured and then thrown
down from a car in the
outskirts of the city.
He became invalid. 2009 10.30 a.m. the police illegally detained
Idrak
Abbasov, a journalist with newspaper “Ayna” and “Zerkalo”, an employee
with the
Institute of Freedom and Safety of Reporters. The journalist was
shooting buses
of Route 156 the drivers of which initiated a strike. According to
Idrak
Abbasov, he was assaulted and “with my hands pinioned they took my
photo
camera, my journalist ID and a mobile phone. I was brought to some room
and
kept there for over one hour”. The
journalist was released only after Niyazi Rustamov, Director of
Technical
Control “Baku Passenger Transport”, spoke to some people unknown to the
journalist on the phone. On
October 08 around 12.00 on his way to the editorial office 1988-born
Ravil
Mammedov, Deputy of Shahin Agabeyli, Editor of newspaper “Milli Yol”
and owner
of the webportal “Poligon”, was forcibly put in a car by 5 men in
civilian
clothes and taken to an undisclosed location. Being with Ravil that
time his
friend informed Shahin Agabeyli on abduction of Ravil. The editor
informed the
Internal Ministry on the abduction of the journalist. In its turn, the Around
16.00 p.m. we could reach Ravil Mammedov though his mobile phone which
had been
closed before. He told that police officers had taken him but he could
not tell
where he was. Around
18.00 Shahin Agabeyli received a telephone call from Sadig Gozalov,
Head of
Press Service with the Internal Ministry and told him that he tried to
clarify
the situation with Ravil Mammedov. Journalist with newspaper “Milli
Yol”
Eldaniz Elgun went to a meeting in the Press Service of the Internal
Ministry.
Around 18.35 p.m. some civilians (about 10) began to surround the
editorial
office located at the intersection of Rasul Rza and Bashir Safaroglu
streets. Shahin
Agabeyli phoned to the Office of the In
the Department Shahin Agabeyli was informed that his deputy Ravil
Mammedov and
newspaper journalist Eldaniz Elgun were also kept in the Department.
Department
Chief explained the reason of their detention – publication of an
article “Soon
staff redundancy in the Internal Ministry” dated October 06 posted on
the
webportal “Poligon”. (According to Agabeyli, the article had been taken
from
newspaper “Nonsense” dated October 05, and the Ministry thought that
the
article had been written by the journalists of “Poligon”. The webportal
was
registered for Ravil Mammedov and for that reason the police had
detained him
first. The
Department considered the article to be harmful and provocative and
informed
the editor of this. Shahin Agabeyli stated that it had not been
necessary to
carry out an operation to seize the journalists. He just could have
been
invited to the Department or they could send the opinion of the
Internal
Ministry concerning the article, and the opinion would have been
published
without fail. Around 21.00 p.m. all the detained journalists were
released and
their confiscated video and photo cameras were returned. The
Institute is preparing a court claim against the police officers who
had abused
their authority on October 08. The number of attacks and
physical intimidations over journalists keeps increasing. 150 (one
hundred and
fifty) acts of physical violence were committed against journalists
within the
first 5 years of Ilham Aliyev’s presidency. It is noteworthy that only
two
cases out of 150 were investigated and the guilty were brought to trial
and
condemned. Representatives of pro-governmental mass media became
victims in
both cases: journalists of the TV Broadcast Lider and Public TV. Faramaz Allahverdiyev and
Sardar Alibayli, the editor and journalist of the newspaper “Milletim”
were
accused for defamation for 6 and 4 months in October, 2009 . The widely publicized case of bloggers Adnan
Hajizade
and Emin Milli (Abdullayev) included two types of pressure on freedom
of speech
and freedom of expression - violence and court (criminal) actions. The
young
bloggers were at first severely beaten and then imprisoned charged with
hooliganism. On November 11 Sabail District
Court sentenced Adnan Hajizade and Emin Abdullayev to 2 and 2.5 years
imprisonment , respectively. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY All actions of the citizens to protest the
rigged
elections were severely suppressed by the police. No police officers
were
brought to trial. And what is more in June 2008 Ilham Aliyev addressing
the
students of the Police Academy stated literally the following,
«International
organizations demand that the police officers involved in violence
while
dispersing rallies in October 2003 and November 2005 be brought to
trial. I
officially state that none of them will be punished. The police were on
the
watch of law and order. The President’s speech was broadcasted on TV. 26 November 2005 saw the last officially
sanctioned
rally in The government didn’t allow any assembly in
2009. THE RIGHT TO VOTE AND TO BE
ELECTED All the elections held in It will be conducted municipal
elections on December 23, 2009( the previous elections were held in
1999 and
2004). In July, the number of the municipalities were reduced from
2.757 to
1.764. The election of 15.682 members
of municipalities is expected on December 23,2009. The municipal
election will
not be held in In In In
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