IRFS calls to impose sanctions on Azeri officials who violate human rights

The Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) of Azerbaijan has called on the country's international partners to impose sanctions on those country's officials, who take part in harassing NGOs and civil society activists of Azerbaijan.

The IRFS believes that the human rights activist Leyla Yunus was arrested "in continuation of the campaign, ongoing during through the recent months, of harassing NGOs in pro-governmental mass media, confiscating their equipment, arresting their bank accounts and de facto closing some of them."

All this takes place against the background of the campaign unleashed by the presidential administration against those who work in the civilian sector, including partners of international NGOs, such as the "International Media Support", IREX (International Recruitment Experiment) and the American National Endowment for Democracy (NED), said the IRFS.

Alesker Mamedov, an independent expert in the sphere of media law, said that checks of NGOs are conducted in violation of the law.

He drew attention to the fact that only the NGOs receiving grants from Western donors are checked, while the organizations that receive money from Azerbaijani state funds in support of mass media, NGOs and young people are not checked.