US congressmen call for sanctions against Azerbaijan for human rights violations

US congressmen, Republican Christopher Smith and Democrat Jim McGovern, have presented a bill providing for sanctions against violators of human rights in Azerbaijan. The congressmen called on the US government to spread the Global Magnitsky Act on the officials involved in the repressions against persons who criticized the Azerbaijani authorities.

"The Azerbaijani regime continues to use torture, politically motivated criminal charges, harassment, international kidnapping and other forms of intimidation to silence human rights defenders, independent journalists and religious leaders," stated Christopher Smith when speaking at the hearing in the Congress on September 26 as quoted by his website.

Christopher Smith believes that despite "the important security and economic ties between the countries," the US should not leave unnoticed human rights violations.

The draft resolution No. 537 mentions specific facts of human rights violations. In particular, according to the authors of the draft resolution, "in August 2017, the coalition of Azerbaijani human rights NGO registered 158 political prisoners in the country."

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