18:15, 25 February 2016

Yunus spouses challenge the ban to leave Azerbaijan

The rights defender Leyla Yunus and her husband Arif Yunus after release. Baku, December 2015. Photo by Aziz Karimov for the "Caucasian Knot"

The rights defender Leyla Yunus and her husband Arif Yunus are in need of high quality medical care, said their advocates. They insist that the ban to leave Azerbaijan imposed on the spouses is illegal and must be cancelled.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 11, a court in Baku refused to provide the Yunus couple with a permit to leave the country for medical treatment abroad.

On December 9, 2015, the Baku Court of Appeal commuted the Yunuses' punishment by replacing imprisonment for conditional sentences.

The consideration of the appeal lodged by Leyla Yunus and her husband Arif Yunus against the ban to leave the country is scheduled for March 4, said their advocate Elchin Sadygov.

According to his story, Leyla Yunus "suffers from hepatitis C, acute diabetes and other diseases; and Arif Yunus suffers from hypertension."

The state of health of the Yunus spouses is causing concern of rights defenders in Azerbaijan. On February 24, the Monitoring Centre of Political Prisoners urged the country's leadership to allow the spouses to leave Azerbaijan for treatment abroad.

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

Author: Faik Medzhid

Source: CK correspondent