AZERBAIJAN-RIGHTS/YUNUS Azerbaijan court jails human rights activist couple

Record ID: 143968

  • Title: AZERBAIJAN-RIGHTS/YUNUS Azerbaijan court jails human rights activist couple
  • Date: 14th August 2015
  • Summary: BAKU, AZERBAIJAN (AUGUST 13, 2015) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) PEOPLE IN FRONT OF COURT SIGN READING (Azeri): 'AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC / BAKU / CRIMINAL COURT" POLICE VAN DRIVING THROUGH COURT GATES / POLICE BY GATES VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN FRONT OF COURT
  • Embargoed: 29th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9BY9MCFGI97L512GH36B0OWR1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT IS PART MUTE
    Human rights activists Leyla and Arif Yunus were sentenced to lengthy prison terms by the Azeri court on Thursday (August 13).
    A 59-year-old head of the Baku-based Institute for Peace and Democracy was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison, her husband, a well-known historian, was given a seven-year sentence.
    The Observatory rights group decried as "outrageous" and politically motivated the sentencing of an Azeri activist couple, saying it was part of President Ilham Aliyev's campaign to muzzle dissent.
    Leyla Yunus has been held in detention since July 2014 on charges of treason, espionage and tax evasion, her husband was arrested a month later.
    Leyla Yunus case is one of several in which rights activists and journalists were sentenced to prison terms this year. Critics of Azerbaijan's veteran leader accuse him of cracking down on dissent in the former Soviet republic. He denies the charges.
    The Observatory highlighted health issues both activists were suffering from and said the court proceedings violated their right to a fair trial.
    "The Azerbaijani authorities should immediately move to set aside the convictions, drop all outstanding charges, and release the elderly, ailing couple," Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
    Today the couple was sentenced for tax evasion, but they will stand a treason charges later which could result in a lengthy prison term or life in prison.
    Despite criticism from human rights activists at home and abroad, the West has actively courted the energy-rich Azerbaijan as an alternative to Russia in supplying oil and gas.
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