Activists urge international organizations to intervene in Guseinov's case

The working group on the unified list of political prisoners has condemned the new accusation put forward against the blogger Mekhman Guseinov, and called on international organizations to urgently react to the human rights situation in Azerbaijan.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 3, 2017, Mekhman Guseinov was sentenced to two years in prison on charges of slander, because he had stated being tortured after detention. He failed to achieve his early release. On December 26, the Penitentiary Service announced that two months before the end of his sentence, Guseinov was trying to prevent a search and beat up a prison officer.

The members of the above working group are confident that "political motives are behind the new criminal prosecution of the blogger." In their opinion, the new case has to do with his criticism of those in power. The activists' statement, released on December 29, says that "Guseinov is not the only person facing a new trumped-up charge shortly before his release from prison."

"The new criminal case indicates the absence of the government's intent to abandon the policy of arresting its critics and ignoring freedom of self-expression," Rasul Djafarov, the coordinator of the working group and the head of the Human Rights Club, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The authors of the statement believe that "the European Union, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the UN and other international structures should urgently discuss the situation with human rights in Azerbaijan and toughly demand from the government to observe its commitments of ensuring human rights and freedoms."

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 30, 2018 at 05:31 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.