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The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has launched a campaign to call upon the authorities of Azerbaijan to ensure Leyla and Arif Yunuses, convicted rights defenders, can urgently receive treatment abroad. The statement of the Observatory is published on the website of the OMCT .

The Observatory calls on everyone concerned about the Yunus couple’s fate to send petition letters to Azerbaijan’s president, Prosecutor General, Minister of National Security, Minister of Foreign Affairs urging them to ensure the rights defenders can receive medical care abroad and to put an end to any kind of harassment - including at the judicial level - against them.

The Observatory regrets the Court’s decision, which puts at serious risk Ms. Leyla Yunus and Mr. Arif Yunus’ physical integrity, and calls upon the authorities of Azerbaijan to ensure they can receive urgently the medical care they need. On March 11, 2016, the Court of Appeals in Baku had ruled that the couple could not travel to Germany to receive urgent medical treatment.

The group highlights that Mr. Arif Yunus suffers from hypertension, and Ms. Leyla Yunus from hepatitis, diabetes, pancreatitis and gallstone disease, which were aggravated after her arrest. Both are in urgent need of surgery and medical care.

On 13 August 2015, Baku Court of Grave Crimes brought in a verdict against Azerbaijani human rights defenders Leyla and Arif Yunus sentencing them to 8.5 years and 7 years’ imprisonment respectively. Leyla Yunus had been arrested on 30 July 2014 in the yard of her house. She was charged with high treason, tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship, forgery and large-scale fraud. Her husband, Arif Yunus, also faced charges of high treason and large-scale fraud. On 9 December 2015, Baku Court of Appeal ruled to release Leyla Yunus right from the courtroom, and her punishment was replaced with suspended sentence. On 12 November, the same court had made a decision to release her husband in exchange for a signature for not leaving the country. 

Arzu Geybullayeva, an Azerbaijani regional analyst and blogger, writes for the Global Voices that Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev likes expensive things: grandiose construction projects, dear-to-host sporting competitions and other glitzy events. But one of the most precious possessions of the dictator and his regime may be Azerbaijan's political prisoners, who have increasingly come to be used as bargaining chips in Aliyev's up-and-down negotiations with the West.

Ahead of his trip to Washington D.C. for the Nuclear Industry Summit at the end of the month, and with pressure from abroad mounting over the country's increasing restrictions on human rights, Aliyev decided to relinquish some of his possessions in a pardon of 14 key political prisoners, Geybullayeva writes.

She also highlights several prominent political prisoners who were not pardoned. In particular, she notes the investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova and the chairman of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center, Anar Mammadli. In the case of N!DA, an opposition movement, only three activists of the eight arrested were released. The young men were sentenced in March 2013 after they used social media to organise a series of demonstrations on the issue of increased deaths of army conscripts due to hazing and bullying within the military in Azerbaijan.

As Amnesty International  puts it, Azerbaijan’s embattled civil society received a rare glimmer of hope as President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree ordering the release of 148 prisoners, including 10, recognised as prisoners of conscience by the group. 

“While this is a welcome development, praise for the Azerbaijani authorities should be reserved for when all those unjustly imprisoned are released and the squeeze on civil society ends,” said Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia.

The organisation reports that prisoners of conscience who remain behind bars in Azerbaijan include the journalist Khadija Ismayilova and human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev, whose health is rapidly deteriorating as a result of a lack of adequate medical care. Prominent opposition activist Ilgar Mammadov remains behind bars despite the ruling by the European Court that he had been arrested for criticising the government, as well as the repeated calls for his release by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. Bloggers Rashad Ramanazov and Elvin Karamov, political activist Faraj Karimov, and N!DA members Abdul Abilov and Ilkin Rustamzadeh also remain in prison. According to Krivosheev, the fact that many of the remaining prisoners of conscience were locked up on similar charges to those released only serves to illustrate the arbitrary nature of justice in Azerbaijan. “President Aliyev must show he is truly committed to addressing Azerbaijan’s appalling human rights record by immediately and unconditionally releasing them.”

Meanwhile, Turan news agency published Russian political analyst Lilia Shevtsova’s interview to Azerbaican saati radio. Commenting on the law adopted in the State Duma of Russia, which prioritises the decisions of the Constitutional Court over the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as the similar hearings going on also in the Azerbaijani Parliament, the political analyst said such step is peculiar to authoritarian states. She highlighted that for authoritarian countries like Azerbaijan and Russia, making such a decision will appear as another attempt of self-isolation from the European community and the European influence. 

She also added that the fact that some Azerbaijani diplomats have asked for a political asylum in the West shows that there are very serious forces among the Azerbaijani political elite and society that are not content with the regime of the official Baku. According to Shevtsova, the decision of the representatives of the diplomatic system, which is essentially “the most conservative one in the political establishment,” to leave the country challenging the authorities indicates “very serious tectonic subductions” taking place in Azerbaijan in general.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree of pardon on March 17 due to which a part of the almost 100 political prisoners was released. Rashad Hasanov, Muhammad Azizov, Rashadat Akhundov, activists of the movement N!DA; Tofig Yagublu and Yadigar Sadigli, deputy chairmen of the party Musavat; rights defenders Rasul Jafarov, TalehKhasmammadov, Anar Mammadli and Hilal Mammadov; oppositionist Neimat Panahli; blogger Omar Mammadov; Siraj Karimli, who was recognised a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International; Akif Muradverdiyev, former head of the Executive Office of the President; and the journalist Parviz Hashimli are among the pardoned prisoners.