Azerbaijani rights defender Anar Mamedli nominated for Vaclav Havel Award

Anar Mamedli, the head of the Centre for Election Monitoring and Democracy Training (CEMDT), is one of three nominees for the 2014 human rights award named after Vaclav Havel, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the press service of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 26 a court in Baku convicted the head of the CEMDT Anar Mamedli and two other activists – Bashir Suleimanly and Elnur Mamedov. All the three were charged with tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship, abuse of office, embezzlement and service forgery. Mamedli, in particular, was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison.

Apart from Mamedli, the contenders for the award named after the first President of the Czech Republic are the "Betselem" Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights and the Jesuit Refugee Service from Malta.

"Anar Mamedli is an outstanding Azerbaijani human rights defender, who made a substantial contribution to the protection of the right to free elections. He is the founder and chairman of an influential and authoritative Azerbaijani organization for observing elections," says the certificate prepared in the context of the call for Vaclav Havel Award.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.