A UNIFIED LIST OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN A UNIFIED LIST OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN Covering the period up to 20 February 2019 Contents INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 2 THE DEFINITION OF POLITICAL PRISONERS ................................................... 3 POLITICAL PRISONERS ........................................................................................ 5 A. JOURNALISTS AND BLOGGERS ................................................................. 5 B. WRITERS/POETS .......................................................................................... 19 C. HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS ................................................................... 20 D. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ACTIVISTS....................................................... 22 A case of financing of the opposition party ...................................................... 39 E. RELIGIOUS ACTIVISTS ............................................................................... 45 (1) Members of Muslim Unity Movement and people arrested in Nardaran Settlement........................................................................................................ 45 (2) Religious activists arrested in Masalli in 2012 ............................................ 77 (3) Religious activists arrested in May 2012..................................................... 79 (4) Chairman of Islamic Party of Azerbaijan and persons arrested together with him .................................................................................................................. 83 (5) Other religious activists .............................................................................. 88 F. LIFETIME PRISONERS ................................................................................ 92 G. PERSONS ARRESTED IN THE RELATION TO SOCIAL PROTESTS ....... 99 (1) People arrested for Ismayilli protests in 2013 ............................................. 99 (2) People arrested for Mingachevir protests in 2015 ..................................... 101 (3) People arrested for Siyazan protests in 2016 ............................................. 103 H. FORMER GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS ..................................................... 109 I. POLITICAL HOSTAGES ............................................................................. 113 J. SAID DADASHBAYLI AND THOSE ARRESTED WITH HIM .................. 119 CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................. 125 APPENDIX ........................................................................................................... 126 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... 128 INTRODUCTION 2 A UNIFIED LIST OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN Covering the period up to 20 February 2019 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 Azerbaijan1, which brings together human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and experts. The list includes cases of people arrested or remaining in prison by 20 February 2019. 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. Political and social activists E. Religious activists F. Lifetime prisoners G. Persons arrested in the relation to social protests H. Former government officials I. Political hostages J. Said Dadashbayli and those arrested with him Some categories are divided into subcategories, which are detailed in the report. The Working Group has decided to include one person (number 22 in the List) who is under house arrest into the report. The Group considers that if a person disconnected from the society, his/her rights of communication with others and right to change the address are restricted as a result of the criminal case, this person can be considered as a prisoner. THE DEFINITION OF POLITICAL PRISONERS 1 On 22 January 2019, the rapporteur had submitted memorandum to the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly. The report refers to the Unified List of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan, prepared by this Working Group. The Working Group is ready to submit any supporting documentation to the rapporteur or other international bodies who work on the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. 3 A UNIFIED LIST OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN Covering the period up to 20 February 2019 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 2012.2 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.3 2 http://bit.ly/1piq992 3 http://bit.ly/18KQFUz 4 A UNIFIED LIST OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN Covering the period up to 20 February 2019 POLITICAL PRISONERS A. JOURNALISTS AND BLOGGERS 1. Nijat Nazim oglu ALIYEV © www.azadxeber.net Date of arrest: 21 May 2012 Charge: Articles 167.2.2.1 (Import, sale or distribution of religious literature, religious items and other informational materials of religious nature with the aim of reproduction, sale and distribution without appropriate authorization, when committed by a group of persons on a prior arrangement or by an organized gang), 234.1 (Illegal manufacturing, purchase, storage, transportation, transfer or selling of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their precursors), 281.2 (Public appeals for the violent capture of authority, violent deduction of authority or violent change of constitutional grounds or infringement of territorial integrity of the Azerbaijan Republic, as well as distribution of materials of such contents, by a group of persons) and 283.2.3 (Incitement of national, racial, social or religious hatred and hostility, humiliation of national dignity, as well as restriction of citizens’ rights, or establishment of the superiority of citizens on the basis of their national, racial or religious background, when committed publicly or through use of mass media, by an organized gang) of the Criminal Code Sentence: 10 years Place of detention: Prison No. 2 Case summary: Nijat Aliyev is the editor-in-chief of www.azadxeber.az, a religious- oriented website of a critical nature. Before N.Aliyev's arrest, the website published materials criticizing the government’s policy in regard to religion, the allocation of too much funding for the Eurovision 2012 Song Contest, and the