BAKU REFUSES ENTRY TO HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH OFFICIAL

Tuesday, March 31st, 2015

Human Rights Watch researcher Giorgi Gogia

Human Rights Watch Researcher Planned to Monitor Trials BERLIN (Human
Rights Watch) – Azerbaijani authorities on March 30, 2015, refused to
allow a Human Rights Watch researcher to enter the country. The senior
South Caucasus researcher, Giorgi Gogia, was planning to attend the
trials of two Azerbaijani human rights defenders who were arrested
on bogus charges and have been behind bars awaiting trial.

When Gogia arrived at Heydar Aliyev International Airport,
authorities refused to allow him into the country, but would not
provide an explanation. Immigration officials took his passport,
and required him to remain in the passport hall. Thirty-one hours
later they handed his passport to the flight crew aboard the plane
Gogia took back to Tbilisi. No explanation was provided.

“Barring Giorgi Gogia from attending the trial hearings shows just
how far Azerbaijan’s authorities have taken their crackdown on human
rights,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at
Human Rights Watch. “They’ve ruthlessly silenced many critical voices
inside the country, and now they don’t want to let anyone in to bear
witness to what they are doing.”

It is the first time that Azerbaijani authorities have denied Human
Rights Watch staff members entry to the country.

For years the Azerbaijani government has had a poor human rights
record, but in the past year a new crackdown has led to the arrest
of the country’s human rights leaders and the forced shuttering of
many independent groups.

Gogia had planned to attend hearings for Rasul Jafarov and Intigam
Aliyev, both arrested in August, who are being tried in separate
cases. Aliyev, one of Azerbaijan’s most respected human rights
lawyers, is on trial on charges of tax evasion, abuse of power,
illegal business activities, and embezzlement. Jafarov, who is being
tried on similar charges, had planned a local “Sports for Rights”
campaign, to draw attention to the human rights situation in the
lead-up to the European Games, which Baku will host from June 12 to 28.

In the last year, the Azerbaijani authorities have used a range of
bogus criminal charges, including narcotics and weapons possession,
tax evasion, hooliganism, incitement, and even treason, to arrest
or imprison at least 35 human rights defenders, political and civil
activists, journalists, and bloggers. The crackdown has prompted
dozens of others to flee the country or go into hiding. Many of the
activists face similar charges, suggesting the punitive and political
nature of the allegations.

In recent months Azerbaijani authorities also froze the bank accounts
of numerous independent civic groups and their leaders, forcing these
organizations to suspend their work or close. The government has also
refused to register foreign grants and increased government control
of foreign funding, making it virtually impossible for groups that
criticize the government to function. The government has for many
years harassed independent newspapers and television stations and
forced many independent media outlets to shut down.

Human Rights Watch said other governments and international
organizations should demand an end to the crackdown and the immediate
and unconditional release of wrongfully imprisoned human rights
defenders and journalists.

“It’s shocking that less than three months before the opening of the
European Games, when the government is welcoming the world to Baku,
it is closing the country to outside scrutiny,” Williamson said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress