Azerbaijan: Leyla Yunus announced rights defender of the year

The Azerbaijani Centre for Monitoring Political Prisoners has established the Award "Rights Defender of the Year". Leyla Yunus, the Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), has become its first Laureate by the outcomes of 2016.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 13, 2015, Leyla Yunus was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison, and her husband Arif Yunus – to seven years. On December 9, 2015, the Baku Court of Appeal (CoA) mitigated the punishments to the Yunus spouses by replacing their imprisonment for conditional five-year terms to each. However, the spouses lodged cassation complaints against these new judgements.

"We have established the Award 'Rights Defender of the Year'. It will be awarded annually to persons who have made a special contribution to the cause of human rights. The first Laureate is Leyla Yunus, a former dissident and rights defender, well-known not only in Azerbaijan, but also far beyond," Elshan Gasanov, the head of the Centre for Monitoring Political Prisoners, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Leyla Yunus has been awarded "for her many years of committed work of defending human rights, and her efforts towards informing the international community about the problems of political prisoners in Azerbaijan in 2016," says the message of the above Centre.

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