OMCT Campaign: Freedom for Leyla and Arif Yunus! #FreeTheYunus

OMCT welcomes the release on probation of Azerbaijani human rights defender and OMCT General Assembly member Leyla Yunus and her husband Arif Yunusov after nearly one year and a half of arbitrary detention and seriously deteriorating health.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK ACTION TO #FreeTheYunus !!

Latest Updates on the case of Leyla and Arif Yunus

- December 11, 2015: Press Release: Great Relief as OMCT General Assembly Member Leyla Yunus is released on probation

- December 10, 2015: Press Release: Leyla Yunus released on probation!

- December 10, 2015: Statement by HRDN: HRDN Stand 4 Human Rights Defenders Campaign: Statement following release of Leyla and Arif Yunus

- December 10, 2015: Statement by Civic SolidarityPlatform and the Sports For Rights Campaign: Suspension of sentences of Leyla and Arif Yunus is a welcome step, but justice is still elusive

- November 13, 2015: Urgent Appeal: Measure of restraint against Mr. Arif Yunusov changed from detention to conditional release for the period of appeal

- November 10, 2015: Urgent Appeal: New developments in the trial against Leyla and Arif Yunus and potential acts of ill-treatment against Leyla Yunus

- October 28, 2015: Urgent Appeal: New developments concerning the appeal trial against Ms. Leyla Yunus and Mr. Arif Yunusov

- October 27, 2015: OMCT Joint Shadow Report to the Committee Against Torture (CAT): Joint Shadow Report to the Committee against Torture

- October 16, 2015: Press Release: Time for justice in the case against Leyla and Arif Yunus

- August 14, 2015: Press Release Sport For Rights Campaign: Sport for Rights coalition condemns conviction of human rights defenders Leyla and Arif Yunus

- August 13, 2015: Press Release: Verdict against Leyla and Arif Yunus is outrageous and must be nullified

- August 10, 2015: Urgent Appeal: Developments in the ongoing trial against Leyla and Arif Yunus

- August 7, 2015: Press Release: Prosecutor requests outrageous jail sentences for Leyla and Arif Yunus

- August 3, 2015: Urgent Appeal: Trial against Leyla Yunus and Arif Yunusov: Fainting of Mr. Yunusov and hurdles to trial observers

- July 31, 2015: Urgent Appeal: New developments in the first trial against Ms. Leyla Yunus and Mr. Arif Yunusov

- July 30, 2015: Sport for Rights Coalition: Statement: Anniversary of human rights defender’s arrest marks one year of unprecedented repression in Azerbaijan

- July 16, 2015: Urgent Appeal: Reporting on the first hearing of the trial against Leyla and Arif.

- July 10, 2015: Press Release: Trial against Ms. Leyla and Mr. Arif Yunus to open after a year in custody

Profiles:

Ms. Leyla Yunus, Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy(IPD) and a member of OMCT General Assembly, has long fought for human rights and the rights of ethnic minorities in Azerbaijan. She has been heading the IPD since 1995. In October 2014, Ms. LeylaYunus was awarded the Polish Prize of Sérgio Vieira de Mello, and was among thethree finalists for the Sakharov Prize. She also received the distinction of“Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur” from the Frenchgovernment in 2013. She has worked on numerous projects relating to humanrights, political persecution, corruption, human trafficking, gender-basedissues and violations of the right to property. Ms. Yunus and Messrs. Intigam Aliyev and Rasul Jafarov were all members of a group compiling a list ofpolitical prisoners in Azerbaijan.

Ms. Leyla Yunus and her husband,Mr. Arif Yunusov, Head of the Conflictology Department of IPD, have also worked towards reconciliation between Azerbaijan andArmenia, two countries divided on the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.Ms. Leyla Yunus has been involved since 2005 in the “Track II Diplomacy”Initiative, and initiated the project of a dialogue between Azeri andArmenians, developed jointly with a regional research centre in Armenia.

On April 28,2014, Ms. Leyla Yunus was reportedly invited as a witness on the criminalcase against journalist Rauf Mirqadirov, columnist and press correspondentin Turkey for the independent newspaper Zerkalo, to the InvestigationDepartment of Serious Crimes of the Office of Prosecutor General ofAzerbaijan. In the evening, however, Ms. Yunus and Mr. Yunusov weredetained at the Baku Heydar Aliyev airports. The authorities seized theirluggages, conducted a search without presenting them any court order,confiscated their passports and seized a laptop, a video camera, USBflash drives and paper records, while denying Ms. Yunus and Mr. Yunusovthe right to see their lawyer. Mr. Yunusov was hospitalised for apre-stroke condition.

On April 29,2014, after being kept awake the whole night and denied accessto toilets, Ms. Yunus was interrogated in relation to the case againstjournalist Rauf Mirqadirov, who had been extradited the day before from Turkey to Azerbaijan and was arrested upon his arrival in Baku and placed in detention on charges of spying for Armenia.

Ms. Yunus’questioning lasted nine hours, and questions all focused on joint projectsbetween the IPD and Armenian NGOs, as well as on her relations with journalistRauf Mirqadirov. Following this questioning, IPD’s premises were searched andauthorities seized all the computers and books belonging to Mr. Yunusov, alongwith printed documents, including the business card of an Armenian historian.Shortly after, IPD’s bank accounts were frozen. Ms. Yunus and Mr. Yunusov were released.

On July 30, 2014,Ms. Yunus was arrested again by the the Prosecutor’s office employees oncharges of “treason” (Article 274 of the Criminal Code), “large-scale fraud”(Article (178.3.2), “forgery” (Article 320), “tax evasion” (Article 213), and“illegal business” (Article 192) and brought to the department of grave crimesof the General Prosecutor’s Office, where she had to undergo a six-hourquestioning. Informed by telephone, her husband joined her at the department ofgrave crimes of the General Prosecutor’s Office, where he was also questioned.Ms. Yunus and Mr. Yunusov were both charged, and then placed in pre-trialdetention. Mr. Yunusov was later placed under house arrest, and arrested againon August 5, for violation of his conditional sentence. Since that date, Mr.Arif Yunusov has been held at the Investigative Prison of the Ministry ofNational Security, the only remaining prison in Azerbaijan which is notsubordinated to the Ministry of Justice. This situation puts him at a high riskof facing torture and ill treatment and the absence of a proper medical unit inthis prison has been denounced by various international human rights bodiessuch as the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) or the European Committee forthe Prevention of Torture (CPT).

Followinginternational criticism over the conditions of detentions, the Azeriauthorities agreed for Ms. Yunus to be examined on various occasions sinceDecember 2014 by a German doctor, Christian Witt, whose official results havenot been made public so far. Ms. Yunus’ lawyer, who visited her on February 8,reported that she was preoccupied over the lack of information about thedoctor’s diagnosis, that she was suffering from sight problems, and that shewas continuing to lose weight. Ms. Yunus, who was previously denied access tomedication by the prison authorities, allegedly lost 16 kilograms since herarrest.

On October 18,2014, Ms. Leyla Yunus was transferred to the Investigative Prison of theMinistry of National Security. Ms. Yunus was held there until October 24,date on which she was transferred to Kurdakhani prison.

On September 6,2014, Ms. Leyla Yunus's cell-mate who had previously verbally harassed herand thrown plates and dishes at her, assaulted Ms. Leyla Yunus. Ms. Leyla Yunuscalled for help and when the staff from the prison arrived she reported theattack and asked to see the prison administration. She wrote three pagesexplaining the event and the previous acts of harassment conducted by hercell-mate. Moreover, she also asked for medicine since she was feeling unwellafter the attack but her demand was unattended. On September 7, 2014, she wasbrought before Major Yagubov who announced her that a reprimand had been issuedagainst her for knocking at the door without any reason and creating unrestinside the cell. No measure has been taken to either punish the cell-mate norto ensure the protection of Ms. Leyla Yunus.

Ms. Leyla Yunuswas later deprived of her lawyer, Mr. Javad Javadov, following hiscriticism of the judicial process against Ms. Leyla Yunus at an hearing onOctober 24, 2014. A few days later, her second lawyer, Mr. KhalidBagirov, was also removed from the case. Moreover, her third lawyer,Mr. Alaif Hasanov, has been subjected to a lawsuit by Ms. Nuriya Huseynova- cellmate of Leyla Yunus – who accused him of passing information to themedia. Mr. Alaif Hasanov was the first one to speak out about thecondition and physical pressure against Ms. Leyla Yunus viaher cell-mate.

On January 5,2015 and February 2, 2015, the ECtHR communicated on two applications filed forviolations of the rights of Ms. Leyla Yunus and Mr. Arif Yunusov .

On February 18,2015, the pre-trial detention of Ms.Yunus was extended until July 28, 2015, and on February 23,2015, the pre-trial detention of Mr. Yunusov was extended to August 5, 2015.

The first trial against them started on July 15.

GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE CRACKDOWN ON HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS IN AZERBAIJAN

AsAzerbaijan was chairing the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe,summer 2014 was characterised by an unprecedented crackdown on civil society,NGOs, human rights defenders and journalists. Prominent and internationallyrecognised human rights defenders joined other political prisoners in Azerijails. Those are: Ms. Leyla Yunus (Director of the Institute of Peaceand Democracy (IPD) and a member of OMCT General Assembly), Mr. Arif Yunus(Head of the Conflictology Department of IPD), Mr. Intigam Aliyev (Headof the Legal Education Society), and Mr. Rasul Jafarov. They wereall sentenced to pre-trial detention on criminal charges such as “treason”(Article 274 of the Criminal Code), “large-scale fraud” (Article (178.3.2),“forgery” (Article 320), “tax evasion” (Article 213), and “illegal business”(Article 192) or “abuse of authority” (Article 308.2). Mr. Intigam Aliyev andMr. Rasul Jafarov are currenly serving a 7.5 and 6.5-year prison sentencerespectively on very similar and equally spurious charges to those against theYunus of tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship, and abuse of power followingthe trials against them that started in January 2015.

Othersnow await trial. Later, on December 5, 2014, Ms. Khadija Ismailova, aninvestigative journalist widely known for looking into corruption, was arrestedunder spurious charges of incitement to suicide.

All ofthe above thus joined the already imprisoned defenders Mr. AnarMammadli (Chairperson of the Election Monitoring and Democracy StudiesCentre, EMDSC) and Mr. Bashir Suleymani (Executive Director ofEMDSC). In May 2014 they were sentenced by the Court on Grave Crimes torespectively to 5,5 years’ and 3,5 years’ imprisonment on charges of or “taxevasion”, “illegal entrepreneurship”, and “abuse of authority”. On March 19,2015, Mr. Bashir Suleymanli was released after President Ilham Aliyev signed anannual presidential pardon.

Thisrepression of individuals in Azerbaijan had been preceded by new legislativeacts targeting civil society and NGOs. New anti-NGO laws, adopted in 2014,provide the authorities with additional powers for temporary suspension andpermanent banning of national and foreign NGOs, and introduce additionaladministrative requirements and increased checks. Non-registered NGOs cannot beconsidered recipients of grants any more. While working under non-registeredgrants is an administrative offence, the courts now tend to consider such fundsas personal income in an attempt to persecute their recipients for tax evasionunder criminal law. In addition, the bank accounts of several NGOs andrepresentatives were frozen upon request of the General Prosecutor’s Office,including those of the Media Rights Institute, the Democratic Institutions andHuman Rights Public Union, the Democracy and Human Rights Resource Center, theAzerbaijan Lawyers Association, and the Center for National and InternationalStudies. To sum up, the new laws have allowed the government to cut off fundingof NGOs by arbitrarily freezing bank accounts of organisations and theirleaders, while making it obligatory and impossible to register new grants.

Thesituation of journalists is similarly dire. Mr. Emil Huseynov, the headof the leading media rights NGO, Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety,went into hiding as the offices were raided by the police on 8 August 2014. OnJune 13, 2015, the day after the opening ceremony of the Baku Games, the SwissMinister of Foreign Affairs (who attended the ceremony) left Azerbaijan withMr. Huseynov. The latter is now relocated in Switzerland.

TheObservatory had previously mobilised especially on the case of Mr. HilalMammadov, a defender of the rights of the Talysh ethnic minority andEditor-in-chief of the Tolishi-Sado (Voice of Talysh) newspaper. He wasarrested on June 21, 2012, and sentenced to five years in prison followingunfair proceedings lodged on the basis of spurious criminal offences relatingto “illegal selling of drugs”, “high treason”, and “incitement to national,racial, social and religious hatred and hostility”. Mr. Mammadov has remaineddetained since then. In its November 2013 opinion on the case, the UN WorkingGroup on Arbitrary Detention concluded that “the charges of treason and incitement to national, racial, social andreligious hatred and hostility are based on Mr. Mammadov’s legitimateexercise of the right of freedom of expression (…)” and requested hisimmediate release with compensation. The situation ofhuman rights defenders, activists and journalists in Azerbaijan has beendeteriorating already since early 2011, when hundreds of pro-democracydemonstrators took to the streets. They were outnumbered by security forces,dozens of activists were detained, as the authorities clearly feared an ArabSpring-like revolution. A widespread repression of civil activists, oppositionmembers and journalists was launched by the authorities. Ahead of thepresidential elections of October 2013, the crackdown even intensified,accompanied by new repressive laws to further stifle civil society. Physicalattacks against opposition members, ill-treatment in prison of human rightsdefenders, judicial harassment and violent repression of demonstratorsincreased.

RESSOURCES
- April 20, 2015: OBS Fact-Finding Mission Report: "AZERBAIJAN: Crackdown on Human Rights Defenders intensifies as Baku Games approach"
- June 11, 2015: OBS Publication of a trial observation report: "If you can’t beat them, jail them": The case of Human Rights Defender Rasul Jafarov".
- June 11, 2015: OBS Press Release on the eve of the Opening of the Baku Games: "Azerbaijan: Gold medal on repression in the run-up to the Baku Games"
- June 24, 2015: OBS Statement at the 29th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on the situation of Human Rights Defenders in Azerbaijan.
- For all Urgent Appeals, Press Releases and Statements on Azerbaijan please click here.

Sport for Rights' campaign, of which OMCT is member, has been established to raise the problem of political prisoners in the context of the forthcoming international sporting events to be hosted by Azerbaijan.

Click here for more information on the activities of the Sport For Rights campaign.