AZERBAIJAN/RUSSIA: Freed Azerbaijani opposition activist Elnur Majidli grateful for international pressure on Eurovision Song Contest host country

Record ID: 218209

  • Title: AZERBAIJAN/RUSSIA: Freed Azerbaijani opposition activist Elnur Majidli grateful for international pressure on Eurovision Song Contest host country
  • Date: 18th May 2012
  • Summary: BAKU, AZERBAIJAN (MAY 17, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TRAFFIC ON BAKU STREETS RELEASED OPPOSITION ACTIVIST ELNUR MAJIDLI TYPING ON COMPUTER MAJIDLI'S HANDS TYPING
  • Embargoed: 2nd June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Azerbaijan
  • Country: Azerbaijan
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAUFPMK457WOWKFZTOF89QMQCL
  • Story Text: Freed Azerbaijani opposition activist Elnur Majidli said on Thursday (May 17) international pressure on his country which hosts the Eurovision song contest this month was responsible for his release and he promised to continue working on improving human rights in the mostly Muslim former Soviet republic of about nine million people in the South Caucasus.
    "Yes, I was released because of the Eurovision (2012 Song Contest). My release does not show that the court in Azerbaijan is free and fair in fact it shows just the opposite. International organisations and society put pressure on Azerbaijan ahead of Eurovision, and the authorities decided to release me," Majidli told Reuters. He had been serving a two-year sentence following his arrest during an unsanctioned demonstration in the capital Baku in April 2011 Majidli said his protest would continue on behalf of others who were imprisoned, including a group of 17 men who were arrested with him. Eleven of those men are on hunger strike until after Eurovision, an action Majidli said he was ready to join before he was unexpectedly released on Tuesday (May 15).
    "Nothing will change in my life (after the release). I will be as active as used to be before my arrest. I will continue the political fight for democracy and human rights and will not change the path I have chosen," Majidli said.
    In Moscow a representative for Amnesty International was cautiously optimistic after the release and called for the freeing of the other seventeen prisoners. Amnesty says Azerbaijan has a poor human rights and free speech record.
    "As concerns the release of one man, Elnur Majidli, we of course welcome this but say that this is the beginning of the whole process that we expect from the authorities in Azerbaijian--namely the release of absolutely all the people we call 'prisoners of conscience' , namely the 17 people who find themselves behind bars only because they used their right to free assembly and demonstration," Amnesty International Russia Representative Sergei Nikitin said.
    "It's fairly difficult to understand the logic, because the release on Tuesday of Elnur was absolutely unexpected for all the prisoners and for his family. That's why we're not drawing any conclusions. We can assume that this type of showy gesture is understandable in that Azerbaijan is attracting the attention of many eyes because of the Eurovision contest and this is the image Azerbaijan wants to show. It would be good if it was only the first step and all of the 17 that we talked about were released," he added.
    Nikitin vowed to continue to pressure Azerbaijan on its rights record and to use European contestants to deliver critical messages to the government from inside the immensely popular song contest.
    "We are talking to potential participants in that contest and people who plan to go there, singers from different countries, so that they publicly condemn the violation of human rights in Azerbaijan. As far as we know, this happened and singer participants from many countries definitely did those announcements. And even when the Eurovision contest finishes, when the hunger strike ends, we understand that if those 17 people aren't freed, all the same, we will continue to work on violations of human rights in Azerbaijan," NIkitin said.
    Rights groups and Western governments have previously urged Azerbaijan, where government critics have been imprisoned on what supporters have called fabricated charges, to take steps to ensure freedom of expression and assembly.
    Critics accuse President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his late father in 2003, of clamping down on dissent, including during protests last year inspired by the Arab Spring. The secular government says Azerbaijan enjoys full freedom of speech and a thriving opposition press.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register