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Azerbaijan Impunity for Torture

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Azerbaijan Impunity for Torture August 1999 Vol. 11, No. 9 (D) AZERBAIJAN IMPUNITY FOR TORTURE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................................................2 RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................................................................................................................3 BACKGROUND .........................................................................................................................................................................6 Political Turmoil .................................................................................................................................................................6 Oil and the Economy...........................................................................................................................................................9 Recent Human Rights Developments................................................................................................................................10 POLICY.....................................................................................................................................................................................11 The United States ..............................................................................................................................................................11 European Union and Council of Europe............................................................................................................................12 Multilateral Lending Institutions .......................................................................................................................................13 TORTURE.................................................................................................................................................................................13 Overview...........................................................................................................................................................................13 Baku City Police Department (Gorotdel) ..........................................................................................................................15 Other Baku Police Stations ...............................................................................................................................................19 Beyond Baku.....................................................................................................................................................................24 Remand Prisons (SIzos) ....................................................................................................................................................26 LACK OF JUDICIAL REDRESS .............................................................................................................................................29 The Procuracy and Judge=s Treatment of Coerced Testimony ..........................................................................................29 Lack of Procedural Safeguards..........................................................................................................................................32 Lack of Commitment to Accountability ............................................................................................................................35 CONCLUSIONS .......................................................................................................................................................................37 APPENDIX 1 ...........................................................................................................................................................................38 APPENDIX 2 ...........................................................................................................................................................................40 APPENDIX 3 ...........................................................................................................................................................................44 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .........................................................................................................................................................57 SUMMARY Physical abuse and torture are rampant in police custody in Azerbaijan. Police routinely beat detaineesCwhether suspected of petty common crimes or political offensesCto coerce them into confessing or giving testimony. The government at the highest levels has shown little commitment to curbing police impunity for physical abuse, and to vigorously implementing the drastic reform of the legal system that is urgently needed to protect detainees. The result is a clear message to lower-level officials that torture is an acceptable practice during criminal investigations. A plethora of testimony from victims, their relations, and attorneys points to a systematized pattern of physical abuse and torture of those detained on suspicion of politically motivated crimes, such as participation in the attempts to overthrow the government, and common crimes. In January 1997, Azerbaijan=s National Security Ministry, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Procuracy General issued a joint statement reporting that between October 1994 and January 1997 approximately 2,000 people had been arrested on suspicion of terrorist activity and plotting to seize power. Those arrested included employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Defense, alleged members of Aillegal armed formations@ or paramilitary organizations, members of the former Azerbaijani Popular Front government, and other prominent opposition politicians. Also arrested were political activists, journalists, and those who demonstrated publicly against the government of the President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev after he assumed power in 1993. Many of these cases went to trial in 1996 and 1997. The trials of some of these individuals brought to light widespread allegations that the police and other security forces systematically tortured detainees to extract confessions and false testimony. Many defendants at trial retracted their signed confessions and testimony against others, providing detailed descriptions of the systematic abuseCin some cases shocking in its brutalityCthat they suffered during lengthy periods in the lock-up of the Baku City Police Department and in other facilities. Human Rights Watch=s investigation found that systematic abuse of political detainees occurred in the lock-up of the Baku City Police Department, but also in other facilities, including the Presidential Special Department, a special military counterintelligence unit. In some cases, Human Rights Watch found that abuse of many political detainees went on for months during prolonged periods of incommunicado detention in these facilities. Our investigation also found that police routinely subject those detained for nonpolitical criminal offenses, ranging from petty property crimes to drug possession or murder, to severe beatings, depriving them of food and water, and restricting their access to family members and lawyers. Such abuse frequently occurred at local police stations where suspects and witnesses are held immediately after detention, but in some cases abuse continued throughout the prolonged periods of pretrial detention. The physical abuse suffered in these facilities resulted in death for some suspects, while others suffered months-long incapacitation and hospitalization. The Azerbaijani criminal justice systemCwhich has seen little reform since the Soviet periodCoffers some insight into how such persistent and wide-scale abuse occurs unchecked, as it grants the prosecution wide powers concerning pretrial custody, access to lawyers, and access to forensic evidence. Under Azerbaijani law, detainees do not have the right to appeal to a judge regarding the lawfulness of their detention or to protest ill-treatment until their case goes to court, an egregious violation of international law governing detainees= rights. Custody during the investigation and prior to trial is the rule, rather than the exception, which often takes the form of incommunicado detention. Azerbaijani law provides for suspects to be granted bail or to be released on their own recognizance, but such conditional release is almost never grantedCeven for first-time offenders accused of petty property crimes. The vast majority of detainees remain in custody in temporary holding facilities or remand prisons. After detention, suspects are frequently kept without charge in temporary holding facilities in police stations well beyond time limits prescribed in Azerbaijani law. Equally alarming, Azerbaijani law empowers the procuracy to extend pretrial detention periods repeatedly, and in exceptional circumstances without limits. Human Rights Watch found that the most severe and routine physical abuse of detainees takes place just prior to and during the preliminary investigation, as police and other investigators isolate detainees from all contact with the outside world, and beat and coerce confessions from suspects and statements from witnesses. Human Rights Watch 2 August 1999, Vol. 11, No. 9 (D) During the same period that detainees are being coerced into making statements, police also frequently pressure them not to seek counsel or to accept a state-appointed
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