OSCE representatives condemn sentencing of Rasul Jafarov in Baku

Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, has treated the verdict of guilty against human rights defender Rasul Jafarov announced by the court in Baku as unjustified. According to her story, Azerbaijan is a country where fundamental human rights and critical voices are being suppressed on systematic and large-scale basis.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Rasul Jafarov, the coordinator of the campaign "Arts for Democracy", who was detained on August 2, 2014, was charged with illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion, abuse of power, fraud and a large-scale embezzlement. Jafarov finds the charges baseless and politically motivated. The international human rights organization "Amnesty International" has recognized him as a "prisoner of conscience". On April 16, 2015, the Baku Court of Grave Crimes found Rasul Jafarov guilty on all charges and sentenced him to 6 years and 6 months of imprisonment.

"The unjustified sentencing of Rasul Jafarov has increased the number of journalists and human rights defenders, unreasonably kept in prisons of Azerbaijan," the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media has said.

Dunja Mijatovic has noted said that she is going to visit Baku in the nearest future. "Unfortunately, earlier, the public institutions have ignored my numerous requests that I made when meeting them. Despite that fact, I will continue to search for a constructive dialogue with Azerbaijan," Dunja Mijatovic has emphasized as quoted by the portal "contact.az".

In her turn, Isabel Santos, the Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, has called on to recognize Rasul Jafarov a "prisoner of conscience". Isabel Santos has justified her appeal by the fact that the sentencing of the human rights defender was preceded by a "long history of official harassment."

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