Baku Today, Azerbaijan
April 7 2006

Telephone Conversations with Armenia Tapped in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan’s constitution ensures privacy of correspondence,
telephone conversations and life, and these norms are derived from
international legal documents, said Rashid Hajili, Director of the
Media Rights Institute, commenting on the statements of the
Communications and Information Technologies Minister’s statement that
telephone conversations and Internet correspondence between
Azerbaijan and Armenia’s citizens are under the surveillance of the
National Security Ministry (NSM).

According to Hajili, telephone conversations can be listened to only
on the basis of special permission, and in concrete cases for
operative reasons. Therefore, mass control is inadmissible. In fact
the Minister confirmed that Azerbaijan’s secret services controls
e-mail correspondence, which is a violation of the basic
constitutional rights of citizens.

Lawyer Isakhan Ashurov is of the same opinion. In accordance with
Criminal-Procedure Code and operative-search activity, listening to
telephone conversations is permissible only on the basis of court’s
decision, Ashurov said. The Minister’s statement testifies to a
dangerous tendency of spying on the population.

The activity of law enforcement bodies must be based on law. If some
concrete people are suspected of committing a crime, it is necessary
to have special permission by court. Interfering with the privacy of
conversations and correspondence is illegal, and materials received
in this manner cannot be used as testimony.

The cochairman of the Helsinki Civil Assembly, Arzu Abdullayeva, said
that it is nearly impossible to call Armenia from Azerbaijan, and
e-mails have been controlled for a long time. On the whole, telephone
communications between Armenia and Azerbaijan support mainly human
rights activists and NGOs involved in the promotion of the conflict’s
peaceful settlement. “Azerbaijan’s leadership officially advocates a
peaceful settlement, which is impossible without society’s support,”
Abdullayeva said.
Therefore, the persecution of people involved in peaceful process
demonstrates official Baku’s questionable position.