The FIDH has already denounced the numerous irregularities which marred the presidential election, as well as the use of excessive violence against opposition demonstrators by security forces, on October 15 and 16. The OSCE and the Council of Europe immediately condemned the violations of these basic political and civil rights.
The FIDH has observed a serious degradation of the local situation since then. A large number of opposition party leaders and activists, as well as those election officials, who refused to sign the results in their polling stations or districts, were detained throughout the country. In a list distributed on October 25, the Federation of Human Rights Organisations of Azerbaijan (FHROA) names 338 arrested and 13 missing persons. The information on arrested, disappeared and severely beaten people continues to grow. According to FHROA information, most persons are arrested by administrative order and jailed up to 15 days but some of them were informed that that they will face a criminal accusation.
According to local legislation, all the protocols of polling stations should be presented to the Central election committee within two weeks, from where they are directed to the Constitutional Court. In order to get these protocols collected by any means, police started to arrest the election officials and force them to sign the papers. Some parties even denounced through the news agency «Turan» the falsifications of the signatures. Some prominent members of opposition parties were arrested, such as the Vice-President of the main opposition party «Musavat» and the chief of the Musavat’s electoral headquarters Mr. Arif Gadzhily, the leader of Umid Party, Mr. Igbal Agazade, and others. The Police also tried to arrest in his flat Mr. Ajdyn Aliev, a member of the National Front of Azerbaijan, but he refused to open the door and threatened the police to jump out of the window in case they broke in. The incident ended only after the intervention of the representatives of the OSCE and US Embassy.
The ad hoc Crisis Centre established by FHROA has received a lot of information about numerous instances of tortures and ill-treatment. The arrested people are kept in detention in the organised crime department in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan. It is also worth mentioning that lawyers are not allowed in the premises.
On 20 October, several TV channels broadcasted the message of Mr. Igbal Agazade, the arrested leader of the Umid party, who accused the leader of Musavat party of having organised and directed «the dramatic events of 15-16 October» after the presidential election. It was quite obvious that Mr. Agazade had suffered physical ill-treatment and pressure before making his declaration.
The pro-governmental TV channels also broadcasted hate speeches against the opposition, appealing for the closure down of opposition media and political parties, arrests and various punishments of their activists, as well as sanctions against human rights defenders (See Urgent Appeal AZ 001/1003/OBS 058 of the Observatory for the protection of Human Rights Defenders - a joint programme of the FIDH and the OMCT).
Moreover, according to the Azerbaijan Journalists Confederation (AJK) and the Azerbaijan Committee to protect Journalists (RUH), on 15 and 16 October, 50 journalists were beaten up - sometimes very seriously - 10 were detained or arrested, six were prevented from gathering information and the cameras of six others were broken - as of 23 October, one was also missing. The journalists were attacked or arrested when present at polling stations or when covering opposition demonstrations.
As early as October 16 the offices of the opposition daily Yeni Musavat were taken over by special forces and staff members were forced to leave the buildings. On 27 October, the Nasimi district court of Baku issued an order of arrest against Rauf Arifoglu, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, who is accused of "resisting police", "inciting public disorder" and "taking part in disordered activities". Moreover, groups of unidentified men in civilian clothes confiscated more than 20 000 copies of opposition newspapers.
The FIDH recalls that one of the conditions for Azerbaijan to get the status of member of Council of Europe - as adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe on 28 June 2000 - was "to revise legislation on elections [...] so that their results can be accepted by the majority of the political parties that will participate in the elections, and can be considered as free and fair by international observers». Besides, Azerbaijan had to «guarantee freedom of expression and the independence of the media and journalists, and particularly to exclude the use of administrative measures to restrict the freedom of the media».
The FIDH deeply regrets that Azerbaijan, who became a member of Council of Europe on25 January 2001, did not meet any of these obligations. Far from establishing democracy and the Rule of law, Azerbaijan continues to crackdown the opposition and to destroy the previous democratic achievements with a rare violence. Therefore, the FIDH urges once again the international community, in particular the European Union, the Council of Europe and the OSCE, to use political and diplomatic pressure on the authorities, so that they conform with international and regional human rights standards.
The FIDH calls the Parliamentary Assembly and the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to organise and to send an urgent investigative mission to Azerbaijan. That envoy would collect and study all violations of political and civil rights that occurred during the presidential election. It should also meet with the highest authorities of Azerbaijan.
The FIDH urges the new President of Azerbaijan to immediately stop any kind of repression and violence against opposition activists, journalists and human rights defenders and to conform with human rights standards Azerbaijan accepted to respect when notably joining the Council of Europe. The new authorities will indeed be judged in view of their capacity to put a pacific end to the current crisis and to establish democratic practices and the Rule of law in the country.