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A Unified List of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan

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A Unified List of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan A UNIFIED LIST OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN A UNIFIED LIST OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN Covering the period up to 25 November 2016 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................4 DEFINITION OF POLITICAL PRISONERS...............................................................5 POLITICAL PRISONERS.....................................................................................6-101 A. Journalists/Bloggers......................................................................................6-13 B. Writers/Poets…...........................................................................................13-15 C. Human Rights Defenders............................................................................16-17 D. Youth Activists...........................................................................................17-25 (1) Board Members and Activists of NIDA Civic Movement…..................17-21 (2) Youths who painted slogans on a statue of ex-president Heydar Aliyev.....................................................................21-24 (3) Others….................................................................................................24-25 E. Politicians, Political Party Activists............................................................25-33 F. Religious Activists......................................................................................33-80 (1) Members of Muslim Unity Movement and those arrested in Nardaran Settlement..............................................................................33-39 (2) Tale Bagırzada and those arrested with him during the operation carried out in Nardaran settlement...........................................39-44 (3) People arrested before the Sabunchu District Police Office...............44-46 (4) The case of Elchin Gasimov and others…………………….…………..46-51 (5) Other persons detained in connection with Nardaran case and charged with grave crimes…………………………………………51-54 (6) Persons arrested in connection to Nardaran case and charged/convicted with minor crimes…………………………………….54 (7) Persons detained in connection with the “Freedom for Hijab” protest held on 5 October 2012...........................54-57 (8) Religious Activists arrested in Masalli in 2012.................................57-59 (9) Religious Activists arrested in May 2012..............................................60-64 INFORMATION FROM THIS REPORT CAN ONLY BE USED WITH ATTRIBUTION TO THIS DOCUMENT AND THE 2 WORKING GROUP ON “A UNIFIED LIST OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN” A UNIFIED LIST OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN Covering the period up to 25 November 2016 (10) Chairman of Islamic Party of Azerbaijan and people arrested with him.............................................................................65-69 (11) Said Dadashbayli and those arrested with him...................................69-74 (12) The case of “Followers of Nur” movement........................................74-76 (13) Others..................................................................................................77-80 G. Lifetime prisoners.......................................................................................80-86 Former Special Purpose Police Detachment (SPPD) members H. Others.......................................................................................................86-101 (1) Those arrested in the criminal case opened with regard to Hizmet Movement and its leader Fethullah Gulen.....................86-89 (2) Persons arrested for Ismayilli protests.................................................89-90 (3) Former state officials/employees of law-enforcement agencies……….91-96 (4) Political hostages..................................................................................96-99 CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................100 APPENDIX - Prisoners with cases are under monitoring……..…...…….................101 SIGNATORIES..........................................................................................................102 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.......................................................................................103 INFORMATION FROM THIS REPORT CAN ONLY BE USED WITH ATTRIBUTION TO THIS DOCUMENT AND THE 3 WORKING GROUP ON “A UNIFIED LIST OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN” A UNIFIED LIST OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN Covering the period up to 25 November 2016 INTRODUCTION Civil society organizations working in Azerbaijan have issued this Report with a view to draw attention to the long-standing problem of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Despite consistent calls from domestic and international organizations to end the cycle of arrests, releases, and rearrests, authorities have not demonstrated the will to cease the pattern of politically motivated arrests. The list was developed by the Working Group on a Unified List of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan, which brings together human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and experts. The list includes cases of people arrested or remaining in prison by December 2016. To develop this Report, consultations have been carried out with a number of domestic and international organizations working on the issue of political prisoners; reports of prominent human rights organizations, as well as the relevant documents of international organizations that Azerbaijan is a member of and has commitments to – particularly, Council of Europe – have been examined; media monitoring has been carried out; trial monitoring has been conducted; court judgments and other relevant legal documents have been analyzed; and meetings and interviews were held with the lawyers, families and defence committees of the political prisoners included in this Report. The Report reflects detailed information about each political prisoner, including the original motives behind their arrest, the violations of law committed during the process of their arrest/detention, and photos of political prisoners (though photos of some of the prisoners were not available). Cases included in the report are divided into the following categories: A. Journalists and bloggers B. Writers/poets C. Human rights defenders D. Youth activists E. Politicians F. Religious activists G. Lifetime prisoners H. Others Some categories are divided into subcategories, which are detailed in the report. INFORMATION FROM THIS REPORT CAN ONLY BE USED WITH ATTRIBUTION TO THIS DOCUMENT AND THE 4 WORKING GROUP ON “A UNIFIED LIST OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN” A UNIFIED LIST OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN Covering the period up to 25 November 2016 THE DEFINITION OF POLITICAL PRISONERS This Report has been developed on the basis of the criteria set by the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe Resolution 1900 of 3 October 2012.1 A person deprived of his or her personal liberty is regarded as a ‘political prisoner’: a. if the detention has been imposed in violation of one of the fundamental guarantees set out in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its Protocols, in particular freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression and information, freedom of assembly and association; b. if the detention has been imposed for purely political reasons without connection to any offence; c. if, for political motives, the length of the detention or its conditions are clearly out of proportion to the offence the person has been found guilty of or is suspected of; d. if, for political motives, he or she is detained in a discriminatory manner as compared to other persons; or, e. if the detention is the result of proceedings which were clearly unfair and this appears to be connected with political motives of the authorities.” In this resolution, PACE recalls that the definition of “political prisoner” was elaborated within the Council of Europe by the independent experts of the Secretary General, mandated to assess cases of alleged political prisoners in Armenia and Azerbaijan in the context of the accession of the two States to the Organisation. Those deprived of their personal liberty for terrorist crimes shall not be considered political prisoners if they have been prosecuted and sentenced for such crimes according to national legislation and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. In the Report, Amnesty International has been referred to in the cases of those recognized as a prisoner of conscience in line with the criteria of this organization.2 1 http://bit.ly/1piq992 2 http://bit.ly/18KQFUz INFORMATION FROM THIS REPORT CAN ONLY BE USED WITH ATTRIBUTION TO THIS DOCUMENT AND THE 5 WORKING GROUP ON “A UNIFIED LIST OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN” A UNIFIED LIST OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN Covering the period up to 25 November 2016 A. JOURNALISTS AND BLOGGERS 1. Abdul Abdulmanaf oglu Abilov Date of arrest: 22 November 2013 Charge: Criminal Code Article 234.4.3 (Illegal purchase or storage with intent to sell, manufacturing, processing, transportation, transfer or selling of narcotics or psychotropic substances, when committed in large amount) Prison: Prison No. 13 Case summary: Before his arrest, Abdul Abilov, NIDA Movement member was the administrator of Yaltaqlara Dur Deyək (Let’s say no to sycophants), a Facebook page with increasing popularity, as well as other social media pages of a critical
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