Committee in defence of arrested Anar Mamedli, head of CEM&DT, set up in Azerbaijan

The public committee in defence of the rights of Anar Mamedli, the Chairman of the Centre for Election Monitoring and Democracy Training (CEM&DT), who was arrested on December 16, has been set up in Azerbaijan. The "Caucasian Knot" reports that this decision was made at an emergency meeting of civil society activists and country's oppositional politicians.

Let us remind you that on December 16 Anar Mamedli, Bashir Suleimanli and Elnur Mamedov, the head of the Public Association for International Cooperation of Volunteers (PAICV), were charged with tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship and abuse of office.

The above meeting held in the context of Mamedli's arrest took place on December 17 in the office of the Institute of Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) with the presence of the officials of the Missions of the OSCE and EU, and Embassies of the USA, France, Germany, the Netherlands and other countries.

As stated by Khafiz Gasanov, the head of the non-profit organization (NPO) "Law and Development", believes that the persecution of Mamedli was caused by his monitoring of elections.

According to investigative journalist Khadidja Ismail, the last week's election of the CEM&DT to the Coordinating Board of the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) was a sort of a "catalyst" for Mamedli's arrest.

In the near future the Committee intends to approve its action plan to attract the attention of the international community and force the country's authorities to release Mamedli.