Turan Information Agency, Azerbaijani Opposition
 Friday


International organizations are outraged by the court ruling on the
forced transfer of the spouses Yunus



Baku/19.05.17/Turan:The Observatory has been informed by reliable
sources about a decision issued yesterday by the Appeals Court of
Baku, Azerbaijan, ordering Ms. Leyla Yunus, Director of the Institute
for Peace and Democracy (IPD) and a member of OMCT General Assembly,
and her husband Mr. ArifYunusov, Head of IPD Conflictology Department,
to be forcibly returned to Azerbaijan from the Netherlands in order to
participate in new hearings in their case.

The Observatory strongly deplores the May-17 decision of the Baku
Court of Appeals, which puts Ms. Leyla Yunus and Mr. ArifYunusov"s
physical integrity at serious risk as there are strong reasons to
believe that they would be arbitrarily re-arrested upon arrival in
Azerbaijan.

The Observatory recalls that Mr. ArifYunusov suffers from
hypertension, and Ms. Leyla Yunus from hepatitis, diabetes,
pancreatitis and gallstone disease, which were aggravated after her
arrest, and during their detention in Azerbaijan. Both are still in
need of medical care.

The Observatory calls on the Azeri authorities to immediately and
unconditionally put an end to all forms or attempts of judicial
harassment against Ms. Leyla Yunus and Mr. ArifYunusov, and calls on
the authorities of the Netherlands to ensure their physical integrity
and their personal freedoms by refusing any cooperation with a
judicial system that grossly disregards international standards and
that sentenced the couple to arbitrary and heavy prison terms under
trumped-up charges as a means to sanction their legitimate human
rights activities.

The organization also calls for sending messages to the President of
Azerbaijan with a demand to stop the persecution of the couple Yunus.

The Yunus were arrested in 2014, and convicted on a contrived charge
of spying for Armenia in 2015. They spent about a year and a half in
prison. They were released on parole, but charges were not lifted.
Later they were allowed to go abroad for treatment. -02D-