Question for written answer E-010661/2012 to the Commission (Vice-President / High Representative) Rule 117 Sir Graham Watson (ALDE) Subject: VP/HR - Farhad and Rafiq Aliyev On 25 September 2012 video material was made public which shows Gular Ahmadova and Elshad Abdullayev haggling over the price of a parliamentary seat in Azerbaijan. In the same video Ms Ahmadova reminds Mr Abdullayev about the fate of arrested former ministers Ali Insanov and Farhad Aliyev and threatens him with a warning: ‘This is serious, this is politics - this is about power’. As depicted also in this video, the arrests of Farhad and Rafiq Aliyev were clearly politically motivated. Court proceedings were held under circumstances of constant and serious human rights violations, and the brothers were treated in a biased and prejudiced manner both at the stage of the preliminary investigation and during trial. In two separate judgments the European Court of Human Rights found Azerbaijan in violation of several provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights. On 23 October 2012 several NGOs wrote an appeal letter to President Aliyev calling on him to release all political prisoners with health problems. Farhad, who suffers from a heart condition which was aggravated following his arrest and imprisonment, is also included in this appeal. Article 78 of the Criminal Code stipulates the release from prison for a person with a serious illness such as Farhad’s. 1. What pressure is the Vice-President / High Representative exerting on the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, following this video? And is the Vice-President / High Representative confronting the Azeri authorities regarding the Aliyev case? 2. What measures has the Vice-President / High Representative undertaken to request that the Government of Azerbaijan complies with the two ECHR judgments? 3. Will the Vice-President / High Representative demand that the state authorities in Baku consider Farhad’s early release, as foreseen in Article 78 of the Criminal Code in Azerbaijan? 4. Will the Vice-President / High Representative approach the question of political prisoners more decisively with Azerbaijan, particularly given that other organisations such as the Council of Europe have stepped up their efforts to this end with the approval of the definition of the term political prisoner? 920103.EN PE 501.131.