Hilal Mammadov, a defender of the rights of the Talysh ethnic minority and editor of the Tolishi-Sado (Voice of Talysh) newspaper, was arrested on June 21, 2012, and sentenced to five years in prison following an unfair trial based on spurious offences aimed at curtailing his human rights activities.
FIDH has been monitoring the situation very closely since his arrest, providing the UN with source information and campaigning for his release.
The opinion adopted by the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention during its 68th session in November 2013 concluded that “the charges of treason and incitement to national, racial, social and religious hatred and hostility are based on Mr. Mammadov’s legitimate exercise of the right of freedom of expression (…)” and requested his immediate release with compensation.
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AZERBAIJAN: UN declares detention of Hilal Mammadov arbitrary
