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Azerbaijani human rights defender Emin Huseynov is forced to hide in Swiss embassy to Baku since 18 August, 2014 to escape the crackdowns of the authorities of the country, ''Caucasian Knot'' reports referring to the Norway fund ''Human Rights House.''

As the article has it, he hid after the Azerbaijani authorities searched the office of the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) that was under his charge, and confiscated the equipment and documents. The office of the organisation remains sealed since 11 August, 2014, and the employees are called to interrogation.

According to the article, Florian Irminger, the head of the Geneva office of the organisation considers that Switzerland should go on supporting the Azerbaijani human rights defender on humanitarian grounds.

''His stay at the Embassy is justified with the crackdowns level in the country, false charges against human rights defenders in Azerbaijan, and the impossibility to defend oneself in the court because of the lack of judicial system independence in the country and pressure on their lawyers,'' he claimed.

The Azerbaijani human right defender's health problems are also pointed out in the statement. Many of the problems are the consequences by the Azerbaijani police beatings in 2003 and in 2008.

''Imprisonment in Azerbaijani prisons, well-known for their poor state, would present a major risk to Emin Huseynov’s health. The lack of access to the needed medical relief for Leyla Yunus and Intigam Aliyev in pre-trial detention further underlines that Azerbaijani authorities do not take all necessary measures to ensure that the health of inmates does not suffer any harm,” Irminger stressed.

As the statement has it, Huseynov is facing various criminal charges, similar to the ones held against human rights defender Rasul Jafarov and human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev, accused of tax evasion, illegal business and abuse of authority. Leyla Yunus and her husband Arif Yunus were charged on similar charges. On 26 May 2014, Anar Mammadli and Bashir Suleymanli of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre were sentenced to respectively 5 years and 6 months imprisonment and 3 years and 6 months on same charges.

Huseynov’s family is facing various kinds of pressure from the Azerbaijani authorities, the statement reads. ''On 10 November 2014, the blogger Mehman Huseynov, brother of Emin and also an IRFS employee, was stopped and interrogated at the Baku Airport. He was issued a travel ban. On 1 December 2014, the identity cards of Mehman Huseynov were confiscated based on unclear grounds. The authorities have also interrogated the mother of Huseynov. Employees of IRFS are also questioned and put under pressure by the authorities. On 26 January lawyer Gunay Ismayilov of IRFS was attacked outside her apartment in the evening,'' the statement notes.

On 11 February 2015 by the television show “Rundschau” of the Swiss Radio Television, he has, since August 2014, been living at the Swiss Embassy in Azerbaijan.

As ''Radio Liberty'' referring to SRF TV-channel reported, Emin Huseynov could save himself from the prosecutions of the Azerbaijani police ''pretending himself a Swiss citizen'', ''Caucasian Knot'' writes.

According to the article, Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed in the programme “Rundschau” that they had provided the Azerbaijani human rights defender with shelter on humanitarian grounds.

''Since then we've been discussing the matter with the Azerbaijani officials in order to find a solution to the situation,'' the Swiss Foreign Ministry written response reads.