CoE Commissioner: Except Azerbaijan, there is no other country in CoE where all my partners are in jail
Azerbaijani authorities should release political prisoners, including human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers and other activists, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, told the Azerbaijani journalists, according to the information agency Turan.
In answer to the question of Azerbaijani government TV representative about the Azerbaijani political prisoner Hilal Mammadov, Muižnieks said, “Hilal Mammadov is a journalist, and a minority activist and an academic who is unjustly in jail, as are many human rights defenders, bloggers and journalists in Azerbaijan. This is not only the initial of freedom of expression, it’s initial of the independence of the judiciary, as the judiciary is putting people away selectively, in politicized manner, and this has been going on for some time, but it really accelerated as of August. And I don’t think there is a double standard; there is no other country in the Council of Europe, where all my partners are in jail.”
According to the article, the same journalist asked whether the Council of Europe takes into consideration the Azerbaijani government’s position or it does not care about that. The European Commissioner answered that he argues and disagrees with official Baku. “Listen, there are two options here: either the Council of Europe are idiots because we only cooperate with drug dealers, suicidal people who attack police, revolutionaries, and so on, or there is something seriously wrong with the system of justice in Azerbaijan. I would submit that we are not that idiots!” Muižnieks said.
In answer to Turan journalist’s question what Muižnieks thinks about the cases of Khadija Ismayilova, Rasul Jafarov and other political prisoners, the European Commissioner answered that the Azerbaijani government should release them. “They should release Khadija, they should release Rasul, they should release Hilal. They should release the human rights defenders, journalists and others who are put in jail unjustly,” Muižnieks stressed.
The information agency APA reports that Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev will not take part in the summit of the Eastern Partnership countries in Riga on May 21-22, according to the head of Department on Social Political Issues of Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, Ali Hasanov. “Given that very little time is remaining until the beginning of the first European Games and that the preparatory works of that important event have embarked on their final stage, the schedule of the President of Azerbaijan is extremely overloaded, and that is why he cannot participate in Riga summit,” Hasanov said.
Later, citing anonymous sources, the agency reported that the President Ilham Aliyev refused his participation in Riga summit as a protest against the campaign conducted against Azerbaijan. Diplomatic sources told APA that President Ilham Aliyev’s refusal to take part in Riga summit of the EU Eastern Partnership member-states is the reaction to the “anti-Azerbaijan campaign” recently led in the West, as well as the vast anti- Azerbaijani activities of the NGOs ruled from the European centers.
According to another APA report, some time ago Novruz Mammadov, the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, invited the head of the EU office in Azerbaijan, Malena Mard, and demanded that the hearings about Azerbaijan scheduled for May 12 in the European Parliament stop. The EU representative was informed that if the event were not cancelled, the Azerbaijani president’s participation in the Riga summit would be under question.
According to the Belarusian information company BelaPAN, during the first Eastern Partnership media conference in Riga on May 20, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović said that the future of media in the Eastern Partnership countries does not seem to be promising in respect of the rights of the journalists. The conference opened in the frameworks of the events of Eastern Partnership summit.
“I will not do a favor to the governments which do not comply with their promises and commitments,” Mijatović said noting that the media freedom is endangered in Azerbaijan and in Belarus according to a recent research of Freedom House. In Azerbaijan, the journalists are in jail, and in Belarus they are “constantly detained because of their reportages,” Mijatović added.
“Things must be called by their proper name. There should be no cooperation with the countries that violate the human rights. Media freedom is a fundamental right, and we deal with governments which regularly violate that right,” Mijatović highlighted.
Further Mijatović said that “too many Eastern Partnership countries deny having problems with media freedom.” OSCE representative called the media plight in Eastern Partnership countries “not so rosy” and highlighted that it is not her personal opinion, but an assessment based on facts.
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