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The Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal), today expressed deep concern about continuing threats to civil society and journalists in Azerbaijan and renewed her request to visit detained rights defenders, the OSCE site reports.

Santos notes that the steady stream of threats to rights defenders and reporters in Azerbaijan continues to flow unchecked, pushing the country farther and farther away from its stated goal of democracy. The latest causes for concern are the closed-door trial of investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova this week and the extension of the pre-trial detention of human rights activist Leyla Yunus last week. These developments only deepen the concerns of many in the international community that the authorities’ goal is to silence all independent voices, dissent and calls for accountability. Santos also reminds about the still-unanswered requests to visit Ms. Yunus, as well as rights defenders Anar Mammadli and Rasul Jafarov.

In letters sent to Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev in recent months, the OSCE PA’s human rights Chair requested further information about the charges brought by Azerbaijani authorities against Yunus and Jafarov and the evidence upon which they are based, as well as the reason for the travel ban imposed against press freedom advocate Emin Huseynov.