Great relief as OMCT General Assembly Member Leyla Yunus is released on probation

On December 9, 2015, the Baku Court of Appealcommuted the sentences against LeylaYunus, Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) and a memberof OMCT General Assembly, and her husband, Arif Yunusov, to a release onprobation for five years.

Both had been sentenced to 8,5 and 7 years ofimprisonment respectively on August 13, 2015, following a procedure thatgrossly disregarded international standards of fair trial and due process. The right to medical treatment of the Yunus couple wasblatantly violated by the authorities who repeteadly denied their release onhumanitarian grounds despite the critical level their health condition had reached.

“The global anti-torture family united in theOMCT feels today relieved. Our thoughts are with Leyla and her husband and theirfamily. We want on behalf of the OMCT to thank all those that have used theirinfluence publicly or privately for her release”, said OMCT President Yves Berthelot.

This decision follows months of intense advocacyand missions of trial observations carried out by OMCT along with many others,including in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of HumanRights Defenders and the Sport for Rights campaign.

Furthermore, the OMCT notes that this decisiontook place exactly the same day as the United Nations Committee Against Torture(UNCAT) published its Concluding Observations following its review of Azerbaijan lastNovember. In its Observations, the UNCAT specifically refers to the arbitrary imprisonmentof Leyla and Arif Yunus. Already, on November 12, Arif Yunusov had beenconditionally released on humanitarian grounds on the day that Azerbaijan wasreviewed by the UNCAT in Geneva.

The OMCT hopes that this release will befollowed with an unconditional release, the dropping of all charges and theability to travel.

“The priority is now to allow Leyla and Arif to fully recover and we arelooking forward to seeing them both soon”, said Yves Berthelot. “This moment of relief should,however, not distract us from the fact that a good number of leading humanrights defenders in Azerbaijan remain in detention today who will continue torequire all our attention”.

Formore information, please contact:

· Gerald Staberock, OMCT Secretary General : +41 22 809 49 39

Formore information on the case, please check OMCT Campaign "Freedom for Leyla and Arif Yunus #FreeTheYunus" webpage

Members of OMCT's SOS-Torture Network send a message to Leyla and Arif Yunus following their release on December 9, 2015:

Yves Berthelot / France
President of OMCT



Henri Tiphagne / India
Member of OMCT's Executive Council
Executive Director of People's Watch



Adilur Rahman Khan / Bangladesh
Member of OMCT's General Assembly
Secretay of Odhikar



Ishai Menuchin / Israel
Executive Director
Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI)



Olga Sadovskaya / Russia
Member of OMCT's General Assembly
Vice-chairperson of the Committee Against Torture (CAT)