Press Release: Intigam Aliyev sentenced to 7.5 years of jail for human rights work

On April 22, 2015, the Baku Grave Crimes Court sentenced IntigamAliyev to seven and a half year imprisonment on trumped-up charges of “taxevasion, “abuse of authority”, “illegal entrepreneurship”, and “appropriation”.Head of the Legal Education Society and human rights lawyer, Mr. Aliyev hasrepresented over 100 victims before the European Court of Human Rights. Thisverdict comes a week after human rights defender, Rasul Jafarov, wassentenced to six and a half years in jail, on April 16, 2015[1].

“Yet anothershameful sentence against a prominent human rights lawyer in Azerbaijan”, - declared FIDH President, Karim Lahidji.

Since the beginning of his detention, Mr. Aliyev's health has severelydeteriorated. Members of his family who visited him on November 7, 2014, havereported that after two hours, he was neither able to talk nor to stand up. Hesuffers from violent headaches, loss of appetite and insomnia. A medical examran at the end of October, revealed that he was suffering from cervicaloesteochondrosis and of intervertebral disc disorders – which requirehospitalisation.

An Observatory delegation visited Baku in January 2015 to meet withcivil society actors in order to first-hand witness the impact of the Azerigovernment crackdown on independent voices. The delegation also tried to visitjailed human rights defenders, including Intigam Aliyev. Despite havingsubmitted several official requests, access to the prisons was impossible. Followingthis mission, the Observatory released a report on April 21, documenting the repression against human rights defendersin Azerbaijan and denouncing its intensification ahead of the European Games ofBaku, to be held in June 2015.

“Less than three months before the European Games start in Baku, it istime for the authorities in Azerbaijan to immediately release Intigam Aliyev and all the otherarbitrarily detained defenders, including: Rasul Jafarov, LeylaYunus, Arif Yunusov, Khadija Ismayilova, Anar Mammadli, Hilal Mammadov and RaufMirqadirov, as well as to put an end to any kind of harassment against allhuman rights defenders in the country” concluded OMCT Secretary General, Gerald Staberock.

The Observatory forthe Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OBS) was created in 1997 by FIDH andthe World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). The objective of this programmeis to intervene to prevent or remedy situations of repression against humanrights defenders.

For more information, please contact :

• FIDH: Arthur Manet / Lucie Kroening (French/English/Spanish) - Tel: +33 6 48 05 91 57 (Paris) / Arthur Manet (French/English/Spanish) - Tel: +33 6 72 28 42 94 (Paris)
• OMCT: Miguel Martín Zumalacárregui (French/English/Spanish) - Tel: +41 22 809 49 24 (Geneva/Brussels)

[1] See the Observatory's PressRelease, April 16, 2015.