10/12/2013 17:11
IWPR: 2013, Year full of Abuses for Journalists in Azerbaijan
“Human right activists and political opposition of Azerbaijan say that the abuses carried out in 2013 in Azerbaijan have thus far exceeded the number of previous years”, the article on the official site of the Institute for War and Peace reads.
The article states that in 2013 a large number of journalists, activists and representatives of political opposition were arrested in Azerbaijan.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International report that 2013 was a “tough year” for journalists of Azerbaijan. Large numbers of journalists were arrested in the country, meanwhile during the whole year no one has been punished for beating a journalist.
The author states that it was a year full of protests and demonstrations, which started in January when the Azerbaijani society was protesting against the deaths of soldiers in Azerbaijani army. The activists, the participants of the demonstrations were arrested and sent to trial.
“The Press don’t have an access to those trials. No one is allowed to observe them. The judges reject all the applications of the defense”, said the head of Human Rights Club Rasul Jafarov.
“Before and after the election, neither opposition groups nor anyone else was accorded their right to freedom of assembly. The treatment of anyone who organized actions that the government didn’t agree with was very harsh,” Miralim Huseynov, the head of the Study of Democracy Group told IWPR.
Asabali Mustafayev, head of the Democracy and Human Rights centre stated that “The persecution is so widespread and frequent that it’s difficult to assess just how bad the current situation really is,”
As opposition candidate Hasanli says, “In the history of Azerbaijan, we have never seen so many political prisoners in an election year. There are now more than 140 political prisoners.”
The author sums up the article saying that such restrictions are nothing new in Azerbaijan.