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U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a statement  in response to sentencing of civil society activists Arif and Leyla Yunus in Azerbaijan.

The statement highlights that Senator Cardin has been an outspoken critic of the Azerbaijani government’s crackdown on civil society. On 8 July 2015, he called on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to halt human rights abuses, respect the freedom of the press, and allow the reopening of Radio Free Europe. In this statement, he stresses that he is deeply disturbed by the verdict against Leyla and Arif Yunus

“They have worked tirelessly over many years to peacefully bring about democratic change in Azerbaijan and they have endured just as many years of harassment by the government. Today as we condemn the harsh prison sentences they are facing, we also celebrate their strength and spirit of endurance and hope that it serves as an inspiration to others. I will continue to push for the restoration of the rule of law in Azerbaijan and the release of Leyla and Arif Yunus,” Senator Cardin said.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, called the couple’s verdict a “terrible injustice” in her microblog in Twitter 
Transparency International released a critical statement over sentencing of Leyla and Arif Yunus. The group believes that both should be released on humanitarian grounds and because the conditions for a fair trial fall far short of internationally accepted standards. Anne Koch, regional director for Europe and Central Asia, said the trial against the rights defenders was clearly a politically motivated legal action. “The trial of the Yunus’ should never have happened. It hurts all civil society in Azerbaijan,” she said.

In her article for The Guardian, Tatyana Lokshina, the Russia program director for Human Rights Watch, stresses that the verdict handed down to the Azerbaijani human rights defenders is politically motivated. “I was in that courtroom as the verdict was read, and when the judge announced the sentence my first thought was that this was actually a death sentence. They are so ill and frail, several years in prison will surely kill them,” she writes. When the verdict and sentence were delivered, Leyla Yunus told her, “Arif is in a very bad condition. His health has deteriorated so, he doesn’t even understand what’s happening.”

Lokshina recalls that by the time she got into the courtroom, the judge was droning on about “unregistered” grants, unpaid taxes, forged signatures, misappropropriated and embezzled funds of foreign donors, and property purchased abroad, allegedly with that money. The guards had not let Lokshina, the media, observers from local and international rights groups and French and Norwegian diplomats in for the beginning of the hearing. This was done because the officials did not want the public to see how sick and broken Arif and Leyla Yunus were, and “how much of a mockery of justice” the trial was.

“No matter what technical and legalistic pretexts the authorities are now using to lock up and destroy the Yunuses, one glance into that courtroom leaves you with no shadow of a doubt – this is a political trial and the supposed perpetrators are in fact victims of a vicious repression campaign against independent critics,” Lokshina concludes.

Earlier, The Guardian published an article  written by Souhayr Belhassen, the honorary president of the International Federation for Human Rights. “Internationally recognised for their work defending human rights, the verdict in the trial against the Yunuses will sound the death knell for the country’s once-vibrant civil society,” he wrote. “For more than a decade Azerbaijan has made shameless use of caviar diplomacy to charm European governments, its most important oil and gas clients. In return Europe has turned a blind eye to Azerbaijan’s human rights violations.”

Belhassen stresses that the courts in Azerbaijan have demonstrated an utter disregard for the international standards of a fair trial. He called on the European governments to urgently and forcefully speak out against President Aliyev’s campaign of repression.

Freedom Now, an NGO that works to free individual prisoners of conscience, also condemned  the sentencing of the rights defenders. “Today’s sentencing of Leyla and Arif Yunus is shocking and frankly shameful,” said Freedom Now’s Executive Director Maran Turner. She noted that Leyla and Arif are peaceful activists who dedicated their lives to defending human rights. “Given the condition of their health and the quality of medical care they have received, the court’s decision is equivalent to a death sentence,” Turner stressed.

According to the article, trial observers noted that Mr Yunus could barely walk and had a walnut-sized lump on his head that had not been treated. He collapsed multiple times during the trial.

On 13 August 2015, Baku Court of Grave Crimes brought in a verdict against the Azerbaijani human rights defenders Leyla and Arif Yunus, sentencing them to 8.5 years and 7 years’ imprisonment respectively. On 6 August 2015, during Leyla and Arif Yunus trial in Baku Court of Grave Crimes, prosecutor Farid Nagiyev called on the court to sentence Leyla Yunus to 11 years’ imprisonment and her husband 9 years finding guilty of swindle, tax evasion and appropriations.

In 2014, Francois Hollande, the French President, met Leyla Yunus in Baku and awarded her with the Order of the Legion of Honor. Later, on 30 July, Yunus was arrested in the yard of her house. She was charged with high treason, tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship, forgery and large-scale fraud. In January, media reported that the German doctor Christian Vitt confirmed that the arrested human rights defender suffered from a serious disease. However, in February 2015, Azerbaijani Nasimi District Court extended Leyla Yunus’ pretrial detention for five months. He husband, Arif Yunusov, also faces charges of high treason and large-scale fraud.

Related:
Azerbaijani human rights defenders, spouses Yunus, sentenced to 8.5 and 7 years’ imprisonment 
International rights groups condemn Azerbaijan for verdict against Arif and Leyla Yunus 
US, UK, Council of Europe, OSCE and PACE sharply condemn Leyla and Arif Yunus sentence in Azerbaijan