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OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović condemned the sentencing of Rasul Jafarov, a free expression and free media advocate and human rights defender in Azerbaijan, to six and a half years in a penal colony, the OSCE website reports.

“Jafarov’s sentencing is nothing short of an act of injustice and it adds to the growing number of journalists and free expression advocates serving time in Azerbaijani prisons for their work. This systematic and wide-scale persecution of independent voices in Azerbaijan is a clear violation of the fundamental and basic human right of freedom of expression,” Mijatović said pointing to the various reports indicating that both the investigation and the judicial process involving Jafarov were flawed because of serious violations.

According to the statement of the official representative of the US Department of State, Marie Harf, published on Department of State website, the US is deeply troubled by the decision of the Azerbaijani court, which is widely considered to be politically motivated.

“His conviction is a further setback to Azerbaijan’s democratic development. We urge the Government of Azerbaijan to abide by its international commitments and respect the rights of its citizens. As a first step, we urge the authorities to release Mr. Jafarov and others incarcerated in connection with exercising their fundamental freedoms,” the statement reads.

In her microblog in Twitter, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Anne Brasseur, wrote that the reprisals against human rights defenders in Azerbaijan reflect persistent degradation of human rights and deplored the 6.5 years sentence against Rasul Jafarov.

International human rights organizations also turned to Jafarov’s sentencing. In its statement, Human Rights Watch calls on Azerbaijan’s international partners to make clear they will not be sending high-level delegations to the opening of the European Games in Baku unless Rasul Jafarov and other political prisoners are freed and the government’s crackdown on civil society is brought to an end.

“Jafarov was one of the most authoritative and outspoken critics of politically motivated prosecutions in Azerbaijan, and now he has become a victim of one,” said Giorgi Gogia, senior South Caucasus researcher at Human Rights Watch, and added that Jafarov’s conviction should be a jarring wake-up call to Azerbaijan’s international partners to send a clear message to Baku that business as usual is impossible until Jafarov and his colleagues are freed.

On March, 30 the authorities of Azerbaijan did not allow Giorgi Gogia to enter the country. He was planning to take part in the court hearings of the Azerbaijani human rights defenders, Rasul Jafarov and Intigam Aliyev.  

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint program of the FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights) and the OMCT (World Organisation Against Torture) - whose representative was present at Rasul Jafarov’s trial and said that it was clear that the trial was based on trumped-up charges – declared that the court was unacceptable, FIDH website reports.

“We must not allow the glitz of the Baku 2015 European Games to whitewash President Ilham Aliyev’s abysmal record on human rights,” said Index on Censorship CEO Jodie Ginsberg, as the website of the organization reports.

According to RFE/RL, Jafarov’s lawyer, Fariz Namazly, said after the ruling that they would appeal the “illegal and politically motivated verdict.” The Sun Daily adds that oil-rich ex-Soviet Azerbaijan often responds to dissent with tough measures. The American news media company BuzzFeed reminds that Jafarov’s “Sing For Democracy” campaign used Azerbaijan’s hosting of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest to draw attention to his country’s poor human rights record. When he was arrested in 2014, he was planning a campaign “Sport for Rights” to coincide with Azerbaijan hosting the European Games in June 2015.

Rasul Jafarov, a well-known human rights defender, “Art for Democracy” campaign organizer, was sentenced to 6.5 years’ imprisonment in Azerbaijan. The verdict was brought in by the judge Eldar Ismayilov in the Baku court of grave crimes on April 16. Jafarov is banned taking up any post for three years after his release.

After the verdict was handed down, Jafarov said he considered it to be trumped up and politically motivated. The court did not prove any of the allegations brought against the human rights defender. All of the prosecution witnesses testified in favor of the human rights defender, and the process actually proved his complete innocence.

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Azerbaijani human rights defender Rasul Jafarov sentenced to 6.5 years’ imprisonment