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The US Department of State expressed concern about the decision to sentence Azerbaijani human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev to seven and a half years in prison, and a subsequent three-year ban from holding public office, the spokesperson for the US Department of State, Marie Harf, said. 

As the statement reads, he submitted hundreds of cases to the European Court of Human Rights, winning a number of them. Harf urged the Government of Azerbaijan to release Intigam Aliyev and other activists incarcerated in connection with exercising their fundamental freedoms.

Тhe Foreign Office of the UK has also expressed concern about the sentencing of Intigam Aliyev following questionable allegations of tax evasion, illegal business activity and abuse of authority. ''Aliyev is an internationally respected human rights lawyer. As one of the first Azerbaijani lawyers to bring cases to the European Court of Human Rights and, until his arrest, coordinator of the Council of Europe’s legal training programme he made an important contribution to the legal system in Azerbaijan. Mr Aliyev joins a worryingly long list of human rights defenders sentenced to lengthy prison sentences,'' the website of the British government reads.

In his turn, the Commissioner of Council of Europe for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, in his annual activity report highlighted the grave deterioration of the human rights situation in Azerbaijan. “Starting in the summer of 2014 and continuing into 2015, the Azerbaijani authorities prosecuted and detained many of the country’s most prominent human rights defenders. While some were charged with violating onerous NGO legislation which makes human rights work well-nigh impossible, others were subject to charges of a whole array of serious offenses, such as espionage, weapons or drug-related offenses, or hooliganism, all of which defied credibility,” he noted.

In his microblog Twitter, Commissioner of Council of Europe also expressed concern over the verdicts of Intigam Aliyev and Rasul Jafarov.'' Such reprisals are unacceptable. Human rights defenders must be released,'' Muižnieks writes.

As the website of international human right organization Human Rights Watch reads, in a joint letter Human Rights House Network and the South Caucasus Network of Human Rights Defenders call upon the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to put an end to the unprecedented repression against civil society and release human rights defenders, journalists and activists. The letter expresses concern about the recent sentences of prominent human rights defenders Intigam Aliyev and Rasul Jafarov.

It is noted that Aliyev’s health condition has deteriorated. His conditions prior to his pre-trial detention have continuously gotten worse. The NGOs believe Intigam Aliyev’s detention conditions might have irremediable consequences on his health.

The authors call on Aliyev to put an end to an unprecedented repression against civil society, release immediately and unconditionally all human rights defenders, journalists and activists, including Intigam Aliyev, Rasul Jafarov, Leyla Yunus, and her husband, Arif Yunus, Anar Mammadli, journalist Khadija Ismayilova. Some activists either forced into hiding or have left the country. 52 NGOs from different European countries signed the joint letter.

''The defendant and his lawyer complained on many irregularities and violations both from the prosecutor and the judiciary about the lack of access to the files and documents of the case. The prosecutor did not allow them to access the investigation materials, even to their own financial materials, which were high importance for the case - during investigation period. Due to such limitation the lawyers of Intigam Aliyev did not have enough time to examine the investigation materials and prepare their defense properly,'' Human Rights Watch website reads.

During the first hearing Intigam Aliyev was kept in a metal cage that greatly limited contact with his lawyer and created a humiliating image of the accused as a dangerous criminal. “I am not an animal to be kept in a cage; it is the wild animals in the Zoos that are kept in cages,” Aliyev said in one of the proceedings.

Senior researcher on human rights issues in South Caucasus Giorgi Gogia published an article on the website of organization describing the human rights situation in Azerbaijan on the background of the upcoming European games. He reminds that on March 30 he plans to attend the trials of human rights defenders, Intigam Aliyev and Rasul Jafarov, however, he was not allowed into the country by the government of Azerbaijan.

Gogia writes that by hosting the European Games, Azerbaijan’s government hopes to boost Azerbaijan’s global standing. Human rights defenders, such as Rasul Jafarov, Intigam Aliyev and others were seen as “spoilers” in the government’s image-branding exercise who deserved to be silenced. Baku decided not to take the chance that they would tarnish the government’s image at a time when the country was in the spotlight of the European Games. But it is hard to keep a crackdown of this magnitude a secret from the rest of the world, the author writes.

On August 8, 2014 the head of the Legal Education Society, Intigam Aliyev, was arrested on charges of tax evasion, abuse of power and illegal entrepreneurship. International human rights organization Amnesty International stated that Aliyev was arrested on trumped-up charges and persecuted for his human rights activities.

A week before the verdict of Aliyev, April 16, another Azerbaijani human rights defender, Rasul Jafarov, was sentenced to 6.5 years’ imprisonment on similar charges.

Related:

CoE Commissioner, PACE, international organizations condemn arrests of Azerbaijani human rights activists before European Games

EurasiaNet.org: European Games visitors to Azerbaijan to have what government orders for breakfast

The Washington Post: Olympic flame must illuminate terrible stain ruling regime is inflicting on Azerbaijan