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Nils Muižnieks, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, made public his third party intervention concerning the case of Azerbaijani human rights defender and lawyer Intigam Aliyev vs Azerbaijan. The intervention is published on Council of Europe website.

It is noted in the intervention that the arrest and detention of Intigam Aliyev in August 2014 is part of a more general crackdown on human rights defenders in Azerbaijan. In the Commissioner’s view, the prosecution of human rights defenders and prominent journalists in Azerbaijan constitutes reprisals against those who have co-operated with the Council of Europe or other organizations and denounced human rights violations in the country. 

“The applicant is one of Azerbaijan’s most renowned human rights lawyers and a longstanding partner of the Council of Europe. He has provided the Council of Europe with valuable information about the human rights situation in Azerbaijan over the past several years,” the intervention reads.

It is also noted that Aliyev was one of the first Azerbaijani lawyers to bring cases to the European Court of Human Rights. Since 2001, he has litigated more than 200 applications against Azerbaijan before the Court. Until his arrest, Intigam Aliyev was the coordinator of the Council of Europe’s legal training program in Azerbaijan.

It is stressed in the intervention that the Commissioner is concerned about the attempts to prevent Aliyev from continuing his work with the Court. Muižnieks highlights that the states should provide the human rights defenders with opportunity to cooperate with international organizations.

The Commissioner also points out that several judgments of the European Court of Human Rights have found a violation of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights with respect to Azerbaijan, related in particular to the lack of relevant and sufficient reasoning by courts while considering pre-trial detention and its extension.

Azerbaijani MP Fazail Agamali spoke out against the Commissioner’s intervention and declared that people like the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks “are instructed by various circles who are troubled with the development of Azerbaijan,” Azerbaijani information agency Trend reports.

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

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