Activists of civil community of Azerbaijan told the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe about violation of human rights and increase of the number of political prisoners

On May, 22, Nils Muižnieks, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, arrived in Azerbaijan. On the first day of his official visit he had a meeting with representatives of civil community.

Nils Muižnieks’ visit to Azerbaijan will last till May, 25. A press conference of the Commissioner of the CU is planned upon the results of his visit. He will also prepare a report on the situation with human rights in Azerbaijan where recommendations on settlement of the problems will be offered.

On May, 22, Muižnieks had a two-hour talk with Director of the Institute of Peace and Democracy (IPD) Leila Yunus who informed the Commissioner about mass violations of proprietary, facts of forced eviction of citizens and expansion of the territory of pulling down dwelling houses. According to her, during the past five years about 100 thousand people were unwillingly resettled in Azerbaijan.

She also emphasized aggravation of the problem of political prisoners whose number according to her, was over 80 persons as of the day. “It is difficult to specify the exact number for more and more people are taken into custody every day”, Yunus said.

Zohrab Ismail, Head of NGO “Promotion of Economy”, also talked to Muižnieks about forced eviction of citizens emphasizing that “they all get equal compensations without taking into account the state of their flats, number of storeys and other features”.

Lawyer Fuad Agaev told Muižnieks that the cases of 15 of his clients concerning violations of proprietary were taken cognizance of ECtHR. The lawyer also produced arguments of groundlessness of the charges brought against Ilgar Mamedov, head of civil movement “Republican Alternative” (ReAl), arrested in connection with disturbances in the town of Ismailly on January, 23-24.

Blogger and expert in the sphere of information technology Ali Novruzov told Muižnieks that there were no technical limitations of the Internet in Azerbaijan but the country was “partially free” from the point of view of freedom of expression on the Internet.