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US Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led a group of 15 Republican and Democratic senators calling on President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan to immediately halt human rights abuses, respect the freedom of the press, and allow the reopening of Radio Free Europe.

The letter is published on Benjamin Cardin’s website.

The authors of the letter express their concern on the diminishing space for both civil society and the freedom of press within Azerbaijan. They remind about the letter they sent to Aliyev in August 2014 in which they expressed concern on the rising rate of politically motivated arrests and detentions, including those of Anar Mammadli, Leyla and Arif Yunus, and Intigam Aliyev. Since that letter, many more human rights activists and journalists have either been arrested or barred from leaving the country, the OSCE, of which Azerbaijan is a member, was ordered to close its office and the representatives from Amnesty International, an international human rights organization, are barred from entering the country.

According to the senators, even more troubling are the government’s efforts to stifle the freedom of press in Azerbaijan, as witnessed by the closure of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) office and the imprisonment of investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova. After several months trying to negotiate a way to reopen its office, RFE/RL was forced to announce recently that its bureau would close permanently. RFE/RL’s mission is to provide a free flow of information and news to populations who otherwise would be restricted to official media only, the senators point.

“Your government’s efforts to censor the media has earned the Committee to Protect Journalists’ ranking as the fifth most censored country in the world after Eritrea, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia. Moreover, according to Freedom House’s Freedom of the Press report, press freedom in Azerbaijan has been in decline over the past decade,” the authors of the letter note and highlight that since RFE/RL’s initial closure in December 2014, they have heard troubling reports about harassing its staff.

According to the senators, over the past year, numerous human rights organizations have continuously raised concerns that there appears to be a systematic crackdown on human rights and independent civil society, including the freedom of press, in Azerbaijan. “We join those voices and call on you to respect those fundamental rights by allowing for a more tolerant environment for free media like RFE/RL and to immediately release those journalists, activists and civil society leaders currently detained,” the senators stress.
Senators from the states Florida, Illinois, Vermont, Connecticut, California, Arizona, Michigan, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey signed the letter.

According to the Azerbaijani information agency Turan, the Executive Director of the organization Freedom Now, Maran Turner, commented on the letter stating that Freedom Now welcomes the US senators’ important initiative and echoes their call for accountability and respect for the rule of law and human rights in Azerbaijan. “We join the Senators in calling for the immediate release of Mr. Mammadli, Mr. and Mrs. Yunus, Mr. Aliyev, Mr. Jafarov, Ms. Ismayilova, and all other prisoners of conscience in Azerbaijan,” he said.

Related:
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin calls on Azerbaijan to release arrested human rights activists