The current authoritarian government in Azerbaijan has made it common practice to violate human rights and freedoms, restrict freedom of speech and expression, lash out against alternative views, and eliminate political opponents. Today, Azerbaijan is governed not by laws, but by the will of those who are in power. People are persecuted and threatened for their critical views, arrested, and tortured in most cases. The law violations in Azerbaijan are reflected in the reports of influential international organizations, including the last annual official report of the US State Department.

Taking advantage of the success in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Azerbaijani government has become more aggressive against its political rivals and alternative views. Upon the instructions of Ilham Aliyev, state structures exert moral, psychological, and physical pressure on the opposition, especially on the members of the National Council, in ways that are antithetical to democratic values ​​and ethical norms. In order to oust its rivals, the Azerbaijani government has already used an unprecedented method of struggle by broadcasting intimate videos of active opposition party members and close relatives. Thus, the private life of Gunel Hasanli, the daughter of the chairman of the National Council, the largest opposition union in Azerbaijan, former candidate for the presidency of the National Council of Democratic Forces, world-famous scientist, professor Jamil Hasanli, was interfered with, and her intimate video was released. The aim of the State Security Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which shot that video under a special plan, is to exert moral and psychological influence on the chairman of the National Council, Professor Jamil Hasanli, discredit him, strike at his political activities and discourage him from fighting.

Moreover, a camera was installed in the house of Afgan Sadigov, a journalist, who is currently in prison and on hunger strike, through the staff of the Housing and Utilities Department. He is threatened to be blackmailed by filming his wife Sevinj Sadigova’s intimate videos. Sevinj Sadigov was told that her intimate videos would be released to the public if she did not stop criticizing the government and her journalistic activities.

Another fact of political repression against the fanatic of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan Lachin Valiyev took place on March 20 in the Sabunchu district. He was arrested for his political activities and charged with the article of the Criminal Code on illegally preparing, producing, obtaining, possessing, transporting, sending, or selling drugs, psychotropic substances, or their precursors. If convicted, Lachin will face from five to twelve years in prison with his property confiscated.

Before being charged, Lachin Valiyev was detained several times and demanded to testify against activists of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan arrested for the July 14-15 Karabakh rally. When he did not agree with that, he was charged. He was concretely asked to testify against Bakhtiyar Imanov, a member of the Presidium of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan.

To “prove” the false accusation, the police recently threatened Lachin Valiyev to release intimate videos of family members. Valiyev was forced to accept drug charges under the threat of publicizing intimate footage of his family life, which was filmed with a hidden camera installed in his house. Lachin Valiyev was shown a shocking video about his family, and he fainted once he saw the footage of himself and his wife. After this, he accepted a false accusation.

In addition, the Azerbaijani government uses threats, psychological and violent measures to silence political activists and bloggers abroad. Mahammad Mirzali, an immigrant living in France, was stabbed at least 16 times in his hometown of Nantes. The International Committee to Protect Journalists (ICPJ) has issued a statement calling on the French government to find and punish the perpetrators. Popular French newspapers, the Presse Ocean and Le Monde have confirmed the incident. Before the blogger was stabbed, an intimate video of his sister was posted on social media by the state security services.

Besides, in May 2017, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the State Security Service, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a joint statement stating that a group of servicemen had been arrested in Azerbaijan on charges of spying for Armenian special services. During this process, (this is called the “Tartar Case” in Azerbaijani) hundreds of soldiers and officers of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces were interrogated and tortured. Nine of them were killed after being tortured. During the investigation, the interrogators used the following methods of torture to obtain “confessions” from soldiers and officers:

Physical tortures 

• Tearing out fingernails or toenails; Giving electricity through the place of nails torn out during the torture; 
• Giving electricity to feet after hanged by arms; 
• Giving electricity to tooth, palate, and ears; 
• Giving electricity to wet body after pouring water on the naked body; 
• Giving electricity to naked body in iron bed and wet mattress; 
• Burning film and plastic, then putting them on the back;
• Putting salt, pepper, alcohol on the burned area of the body;
• Pulling out teeth with pliers;
• Clamping genitals;
• Putting bottle or a piece of iron into the anus;
• Tearing mouth up to the ear 

Moral and psychological tortures;

• Bringing close relatives and family members of servicemen, who have not signed the explanations prepared by interrogators, to prison, and threatening them to rape their relatives and family members in case they do not sign;
• Sons of detainees were brought to prison and required to urinate on their fathers.  

Ogtay Gulaliyev, the head of the Center for the Protection of Political Prisoners (Zentrum für den Schutz von politischen Gefangenen), a human rights activist who publicized the case, which has been closed since 2017, in 2019, was hit by a car on October 29 upon the order of the authority and is still in a coma due to his injuries.

Although these inhumane acts of torture are a matter of concern for the Azerbaijani society today, the Azerbaijani government does not intend to investigate this incident objectively and to punish the perpetrators.

All this shows that it is common practice in Azerbaijan to violate human rights and freedoms, arrest people on politically motivated charges, and subject them to horrific torture. This is a gross violation of the Constitution and laws of the Azerbaijani state and non-compliance with international conventions to which the state is a party.

Taking all this into account, we, the signatories of this document, make the following demands:

• Democratic countries should call on the Azerbaijani authority to ensure human rights and freedoms;
• Torturing people, especially political activists, must be ended and those who do so must be punished;
• Intrusions into people’s private lives must be ended and those involved in the incident must be punished;
• Sanctions must be imposed on officials violating human rights, torturing citizens, and ordering torture in Azerbaijan;
• The criminal case under the name “Tartar case” must be reinvestigated objectively, and the perpetrators must be punished;
• The United States, Britain, Germany, and influential international organizations – the UN, the European Union, the Council of Europe must take practical measures to impose sanctions on officials involved in human rights violations. 

Best regards,