Actualités
RESOLUTION:
The annual Congress of the European Journalists Association (AEJ) meeting in Brussels on November 22/23 2013 condemns the crackdown on media representatives and human rights advocates in a growing number of European countries including Azerbaijan, Belarus and Russia.
Azerbaijan, which is due to take over the chairmanship of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers in May 2014, must free journalists such as Rashad Ramazanov, a blogger critical of the President of Azerbaijan, recently jailed for 9 years on dubious charges of possession of drugs and Sardar Alibeyli, the editor of the PS Nota publication, who has been given a 4 year prison sentence on charges of hooliganism.
The AEJ also endorses the European Parliament's call for the release of Ilgar Mammadov, a civil society leader and the director of the Baku School of Political Studies of the Council of Europe who has been detained unlawfully since February on trumped up charges because he was designated to stand as a candidate in the Azeri presidential election.
Similarly Anar Mammadli, the head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre (EMDS), Bashir Suleymanli, the EMDS executive director and Elnur Mammadli, the head of the ICV public union have been under criminal investigation since the end of October for receiving foreign grants to fund election observation of the presidential election on October 9 this year. This investigation must also be dropped.
Azerbaijan must live up to the commitments it made when it joined the Council of Europe and specifically respect for human rights, democratic values and the rule of law.
If Azerbaijan continues to treat its dissenting voices with a blatant disregard for basic rights, the Council of Europe should postpone Azerbaijan’s chairmanship until such time as it conforms to the organization's rules.
