5 September 2024

Open Letter to the PACE Bureau: Freedom for Anar Mammadli — End Repression in Azerbaijan #COP29

Strasbourg, Baku, Geneva, 5 September 2024

Re.: Intensified repression in Azerbaijan since January 2024

Dear Mr President,
Dear Bureau members,

Since the Parliamentary Assembly’s decision not to ratify the credentials of the delegation of the Republic of Azerbaijan,1 and ahead of the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Baku, the country has witnessed a notable intensification of repression, occurring in the aftermath of the presidential election on 7 February 2024 and the parliamentary election on 1 September 2024.

As this is being written, almost no independent civil society actor remains free in the country. Independent media outlets have seen their leadership arrested, and the authorities have increased pressure on the legal profession, as well as on academics and scholars. The repression is becoming increasingly focused on young individuals.

On 29 April 2024, prominent Azerbaijani human rights defender Anar Mammadli, the winner of the 2014 Vaclav Havel Award of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, was arrested once again. He has since been in pre-trial detention on charges that have been fabricated. His detention is emblematic of the increase in repression observed in 2024. Anar Mammadli is the leader of the only independent election monitoring organisation in the country and a co-founder of the Climate Justice Initiative, a coalition of independent environmental and human rights organisations that aimed to join forces in view of COP29. His arrest occurred after his organisation published its preliminary findings on the conduct of the last presidential elections and shortly after the establishment of the Climate Justice Initiative was announced.

Nevertheless, Anar Mammadli is not the sole political prisoner in Azerbaijan. According to Azerbaijani civil society there are more than 300 political prisoners in the country, of whom the following individuals are particularly emblematic of the reinforced repression:

Famil Khalilov is a civic activist with a considerable following on social media. He is held in conditions that fail to address his needs as a person with a disability. These concerns are further compounded considering the “deplorable state of affairs” of places of detention, as recently highlighted by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture;2
Bahruz Samadov is a researcher and activist specialising in authoritarianism. His written work offers a critical analysis of Azerbaijan’s regional and foreign policy. The prosecution of Bahruz Samadov, associated to targeting other scholars, reveals a new trend, in the will to silence young academics and writers who through their research criticise Azerbaijan’s regional and foreign policy;
Gubad Ibadoghlu is a distinguished academic and anti-corruption expert who has taught and conducted research on public finance management and good governance in Azerbaijan and abroad, most recently at the London School of Economics. Since 2014, he has been residing in exile. In July 2023, he returned to Azerbaijan to visit his family but was promptly and violently arrested. Following a nine-month period of pre-trial detention, he was placed in house arrest. He remains in this situation until today, as he awaits trial. If convicted, he could face up to 17 years imprisonment;
The trade union activist, Afiaddin Mammadov, has been held in pre-trial detention since August 2023 and is currently facing criminal charges that could result in a 11-year prison sentence;
At the same time, Azerbaijani authorities cracked down on independent media, raiding and shutting down the media outlets Abzas Media, Toplum TV, and Kanal 13. As of June 2024, eight journalists arrested during the raids were in pre-trial detention on various criminal charges, including the Abzas Media Director, human rights defender and journalist, Ulvi Hasanli, and woman human rights defender and journalist, eidtor-in-chief Sevinj Abbasova, head of Institute for Democratic Initiatives, human rights defender Akif Gurbanov, the founder of Toplum TV Alaskar Mammadli and Aziz Orujev, the director of Kanal 13;
Political activists Tofig Yagublu and Ruslan Izzatli, human rights defender and investigative journalist Hafiz Babali and women human rights defenders and journalists Elnara Gasimova, Nargiz Absalamova, Ali Zeynal and Mushfig Cabbar are also among individuals who are remain in detention.

Moreover, the Mammadli Group of cases before the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers continues to be addressed in an impartial manner. The cases in question pertain to prominent human rights defenders, civil society leaders and a journalist who were all subjected to arrests and detentions between 2013 and 2016. The European Court of Human Rights found that these actions constituted a misuse of criminal law, which was intended to punish and silence them for their human rights and journalistic activities. As recently observed by a group of distinguished legal and human rights NGOs,3 the Court also “established that these cases reflected a troubling pattern of arbitrary arrests and detentions of government critics, civil society activists and human rights defenders through retaliatory prosecutions and misuse of criminal law in defiance of the rule of law, and the actions of the State gave rise to a risk of further repetitive applications (Aliyev v Azerbaijan, § 223).4

In a context of repression aimed at the total silencing of independent civil society, targeting in particular human rights defenders and lawyers, journalists and media workers, independent academics and researchers, as well as political and environmental activists, we call upon the Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to:

Ahead of and at the occasion of the next Vaclav Havel award ceremony, call for the release of Anar Mammadli and other human rights defenders and civil activists, environmental activists, and journalists whose arrests are politically motivated; use all vehicles in doing so, including through increased pressure on Azerbaijan’s government to implement the cases of the Mammadli Group of judgements of the European Court of Human Rights;
Call for a total review, in accordance with Council of Europe Venice Commission findings, of the legislation designed to target human rights defenders and civil society and criminalise their activities; make clear that none of such legislation should be used to further arrest and prosecute such individuals ahead of PACE’s reconsideration of the credentials of Azerbaijan’s delegation;
Ensure that if members of PACE are to participate to COP29 to further the important technical discussions and agreements that states are to find at COP29, they avoid to contribute to Azerbaijan self-satisfaction through high-level political endorsement of the COP29 host country’s political leadership; condemn Azerbaijan’s blacklisting of individuals critical of the government to prevent their presence in Azerbaijan during COP29, including human rights defenders and lawyers, journalists and media workers, independent academics and researchers, political and environmental activists, as well as MPs, including members of PACE.

Sincerely yours,

Signatories:

Anar Mammadli Campaign to end repression in Azerbaijan
Civil Network Opora, Ukraine
European Exchange
European Platform for Democratic Elections
Front Line Defenders
International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR)
Netherlands Helsinki Committee
Norwegian Helsinki Committee
Political Accountability Foundation, Poland
Promo-LEX Association, Moldova
Resource Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Moldova
Swedish International Liberal Centre
ZMINA Human Rights Center, Ukraine

Contact details, on behalf of the signatories:

Florian Irminger
Email: fi@progress-change-actionlab.org
Mob: +41 79 751 80 42

The Anar Mammadli Campaign is managed by Progress & Change Action Lab, at the behest of Azerbaijani lawyers, human rights defenders, and their organisations. Azerbaijani human rights defenders and NGOs through their pro-bono contributions support the Campaign, which benefits from their invaluable endorsement.

1 PACE Resolution 2527 (2024).
2 Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, “Council of Europe anti-torture Committee issues public statement on Azerbaijan”, 3 July 2024, available at https://www.coe.int/en/web/cpt/-/council-of-europe-anti-torture-committee-issues-public-statement-on-azerbaijan.
3 On 8 August 2024, NGOs with a long-standing engagement on Azerbaijan and well-established legal authority submitted information to the Committee of Ministers on the continued nature of repression affecting the applicants of the Mammadli Group of cases of the European Court of Human Rights, available at https://free-anar.site/rule-9-2-submission-on-mammadli-group/.
4 About the Aliyev v Azerbaijan judgement, analysis by the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre available at https://ehrac.org.uk/en_gb/key-ehrac-cases/aliyev-v-azerbaijan/.