Tag Archives: human rights

Pen Portrait: Kyrgyz rights activist: Azimzhan Askarov

JULY 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – In Kyrgyzstan and abroad, Azimzhan Askarov divides opinion.

Charged with inciting ethnic hatred and participating in the murder of a police officer, Askarov was imprisoned for life in the south of Kyrgyzstan in 2010 after ethnic fighting killed nearly 400 people in the city of Osh.

It was a angry time, only a few months after a violent revolution, that enflamed historic, simmering tension between the two ethnic groups. Askarov’s supporters said that the charges had been fabricated and in July 2015, he received a human rights prize from the US State Department, an award that prompted the Kyrgyz government to downgrade diplomatic ties with Washington.

Now, after pressure from the UN, Kyrgyzstan has agreed to look again at his sentence.

Askarov, 65, was born in Kyrgyzstan into an Uzbek family. He studied in Tashkent before returning to Kyrgyzstan to work as a human rights advocate.

In 2002, Askarov founded the NGO Vozdukh (“air”) to investigate police brutality. According to local accounts, when challenged on why he had chosen to spend his life in the unglamorous, under-paid and dangerous world of human rights in Central Asia, he would say that “human rights are as indispensable as the air”.

Human rights lobby groups said at the time of his trial in 2010 that Askarov has been beaten and mistreated while in detention. Despite several attempts to reverse the sentence, the Supreme Court upheld the decision to keep Askarov in prison for life in 2011.

His supporters said that the state apparatus was working against him to crush a government opponent. The United States agreed but Kyrgyzstan wouldn’t budge. The tipping point came when the United Nations Human Rights Commission said that Askarov had been tortured and mistreated ahead of the trial and called the Kyrgyz authorities to release him.

Surprisingly, this time, the Kyrgyz Supreme Court listened and said it would look at the sentence again in July.

The question now, though, is whether the Supreme Court will seriously consider releasing Askarov over mistreatment before his trial in 2010, a move that would anger and irritate many Kyrgyz politicians who view him with suspicion.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Kyrgyz Supreme Court is unlikely to release rights defender Askarov

BISHKEK, JUNE 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court may be set to review the case of imprisoned human rights activist Azimzhan Askarov but analysts have said that he is unlikely to be released in a process designed to appease the United States and the United Nations.

Askarov’s case is controversial because he was described as a political prisoner by the United States last year, angering Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyz politicians view him as a troublemaker who has stirred ethnic tension in the south of the country.

Police arrested Askarov after ethnic violence in Osh killed nearly 400 people in 2010. Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek who investigated police brutality, was accused and convicted of inciting the violence and also being part of a gang that killed a policeman. His supporters have always said that he is a political prisoner.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee effectively weighed in on the row between Kyrgyzstan and the US earlier this year when it said that a Kyrgyz court should review the case.

And in a surprise move, the Kyrgyz Supreme Court said last week that it would do just this, raising hopes held by rights defenders that Askarov may be set free from his life sentence.

But Emil Juraev, a political analyst, said that although there were allegations of mistreatment, the UN can only pressure for a review of the case and not for a prisoner to be released.

“This time they called the Kyrgyz court to review the case, as they said it was not valid last time,” he said. “It’s likely, that the court will not change its decision.”

His sentiment was backed up by rights defender Aziza Abdirasulova.

“I worry that the court will only review this case as such and not follow demands to release Askarov due to violations during the process,” she told the Conway Bulletin’s Bishkek correspondent. “Besides, there is a risk that nationalist and radical groups will disrupt the process.”

The Supreme Court is due to consider the case on July 11.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court changes Askarov sentence

JUNE 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court said it would reconsider a life sentence levied against Azimzhan Askarov, a prominent human rights defender, on July 11. Police arrested Askarov in the aftermath of clashes in 2010 that toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s government for inciting ethnic hatred. Pressured by US lobby groups, who have held up Askarov as a human rights champion, the Court had announced in April that it would revise the sentence.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Azerbaijan readies for first F1 race

JUNE 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan hosts its first Formula 1 Grand Prix in Baku on June 17-19, a race that an estimated 350m people will watch on TV around the world.

President Ilham Aliyev hopes that the race will give Azerbaijan’s profile a major boost, but human rights campaigners are also using it as an opportunity to highlight its poor human rights record.

The newly-built Baku Circuit, a 6km circuit through the city’s historical centre, is fast, allowing cars to hit speeds of up to 340km per hour, making it the fastest street track in the world, according to the organisers.

Spanish driver Fernando Alonso said that it was a unique circuit.

“It’s good both for drivers and in terms of the show for spectators,” he told the formula1.com website.

But in the host city, few Azerbaijanis share his excitement.

With oil prices down, Azerbaijan, which depends on income from oil and gas exports, is predicted to drop into a recession this year.

Official data has not been released but Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has estimated that the authorities have spent $250m on hosting the F1 race — roughly half the annual healthcare budget.

Locals said the Azerbaijani government should be concentrating on improving the country’s economy.

Bahruz, a 21-year old student in Baku, told the Conway Bulletin’s Azerbaijan correspondent that unemployment has been rising fast.

“Formula 1 is a waste of money. It just serves the government to build an image as a sport-loving country,” he said.

Mr Aliyev appears to have decided to promote Azerbaijan through hosting sports events and sponsoring teams. Azerbaijan had sponsored the team shirt of Atletico Madrid football club, sponsors the European football championship in France and last year hosted the first European Games.

Azerbaijan released several journalists and rights campaigners from prison this year but Rebecca Vincent, head of the Sport for Rights Campaign and a human rights activist said Mr Aliyev was trying to whitewash his government.

“Viewers should not be fooled. The smoke and mirrors distract from a more sinister truth,” she said. “A brutal human rights crackdown taking place behind the scenes.”

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

ECHR says Georgian prosecutors abused their power

JUNE 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Court of Human Rights said in a ruling that Georgian prosecutors abused their power during the pre-trial detention of Georgia’s ex-interior minister Vano Merabishvili in an effort to extract information regarding the unrelated trial against former President Mikhail Saakashvili. Merabishvili was arrested in May 2013 on charges of vote fraud and embezzlement of party funds. He said the charges were politically motivated.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Tajikistan responds to EU

DUSHANBE, JUNE 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A group of Tajik academics launched a staunch defence of the government’s crackdown on the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) after the European Parliament passed a resolution criticising it.

The authorities in Tajikistan outlawed the IRPT last year. Last month a court handed the IRPT leaders several years in prison for attempting to organise a coup. In response to the prison sentences, the European Parliament said it was concerned about freedom of expression in Tajikistan.

Tajikistan’s foreign ministry responded by criticising Europe for double standards over terrorism and a group of academics released a statement blaming the IRPT for a civil war in the 1990s and saying that it controlled the European Parliament.

A Dushanbe-based analyst, though, said that like student protests which sprung up this year to promote the government, the authorities were influencing the academics.

“These letters of support are aimed at pleasing the authorities and promoting careers,” he said.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Editorial: Turkmen human rights

JUNE 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s taken 13 years but human rights groups scored a significant victory in Turkmenistan when the authorities finally allowed Ayjemal Rejepova and her two young daughters to leave the country to rejoin their family in Europe.

Ms Rejepova’s father is Pirkuli Tanrykuliev, a former Turkmen doctor and opposition leader. He was imprisoned in 1999, released shortly afterwards and then allowed to leave the country for exile in Norway. His wife followed but his daughter was banned from joining him.

As well as being banned from travelling abroad, Ms Rejepova and her husband lost their jobs and were subject to searches and intimidation by the Turkmen security forces.

With the help of Western human rights groups, she has now succeeded in pressuring the Turkmen authorities in scrapping the travel ban. She has been brave but, as Human Rights Watch pointed out, there are thousands of other Turkmen also subject to a travel ban from Turkmenistan because of alleged offences linked to relatives. The pressure needs to be maintained.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Azerbaijan to pay compensation for ill-treatment of political prisoners

JUNE 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Court of Human Rights said the Azerbaijani government should pay €15,000 ($17,000) compensation to both Leyla and Arif Yunus, two former political prisoners, for providing “inadequate medical treatment”. The couple, freed in April to seek urgent medical care, had spent more than a year in prison on what rights activists called trumped up charges. The Yunuses have now sought asylum in the Netherlands.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Khadija Ismayilova: Investigative journalist

MAY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Beaming from ear to ear, Khadija Ismayilova blinked and smiled. It was Wednesday and Ms Ismayilova’s first taste of freedom after 537 days in prison for charges that she and her supporters have said were politically motivated.

In those 537 days, Ms Ismayilova has been transformed from a journalist known locally for her hard-hitting investigative reports that exposed corrupt schemes linked to President Ilham Aliyev to the international face of the fight for freedom of speech in Azerbaijan.

Her resilience and determination not to back down under intense pressure from the government and other dark forces, including a series of blackmail threats in 2012 linked to sex tapes made of her, won her many admirers in the West.

John McCain, a former US presidential candidate, was among the high- profile list of politicians from around the world who have been campaigning for Ms Ismayilova’s release.

After she was freed he said: “Khadija has played a critical role in uncovering government corruption and holding authorities accountable, and her commitment to freedom of the press and human rights serves as an inspiration for journalists everywhere.”

And this work has been recognised by a string of institutions who have given Ms Ismayilova various awards including the prestigious PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award and the Anna Politkovskaya Award. Both these awards are for reporters who focus on anti-corruption issues and human rights.

And Ms Ismayilova, who turns 40 on May 27, has already said that she plans to continue her work, despite the dangers.

“Regarding my plans for journalism, I am going to continue my investigations,” she said in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio

Liberty. “There is always a lot of work to do in a country like Azerbaijan where corruption is on such a massive scale.”

In Ms Ismayilova, President Aliyev and his cohort of supporters have found a dogged and determined anti-corruption opponent.

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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Azerbaijan frees Ismayilova

MAY 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Supreme Court in Azerbaijan unexpectedly freed investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova from prison, marking a major victory for human rights and free speech activists.

Ms Ismayilova was the most high- profile journalist imprisoned in Azerbaijan over the last few years in a crackdown by the authorities on the media and opposition activists. She had worked for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, hosted a popular radio programme and reported on corruption allegations against President Ilham Aliyev.

The Supreme Court scrapped charges against Ms Ismayilova for misappropriation of property and abuse of power but upheld other charges of tax evasion and illegal entrepreneurship. Importantly it reduced the original sentence of 7-1⁄2 years handed down in September 2015 to a 3-1⁄2 year suspended sentence. Ms Ismayilova had been arrested and imprisoned since December 2014.

Wearing a huge smile, Ms Ismayilova emerged from her prison in Baku, to face the media. She was as defiant as ever.

“My arrest was solely for political reasons as President Aliyev and his clique wanted to get rid of any criticism against them,” she said.

Later, in an interview with RFE/RL, Ms Ismayilova said that she would continue to work as an investigative journalist. The authorities, though, have said that Ms Ismayilova is not allowed to work as a journalist during her suspended sentence.

The Azerbaijani authorities appear to have had a change of heart regarding dozens of activists they have arrested over the past few years. They allowed human rights activists Arif and Leyla Yunus to leave the country earlier this month and in March gave amnesty to a dozen or so activists.

An economic downturn, triggered by a collapse in oil prices has hit Azerbaijan hard. Observers said the authorities in Azerbaijan may have decided to back down over the West’s demands to relax their hardline approach in favour of improved ties.

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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)